Lamine Yamal Dominates and PSG to go Three in a Row? - UEFA Champions League GW1 Roundup

Madrid Record Set to be Toppled - Football Park's Champions League GW1 Roundup

Well the greatest club competition in the world is back and ladies and gentleman and as an Arsenal fan the first gameweek has me terrified at our own chances.

From a neutral perspective however this has been a fantastic reintroduction to European football, we have already seen some insane scorelines, ridiculous goals and promise that this years competition may be one of the best yet.

Plenty of sides are looking to be genuine threats in this years edition but who has stood out the most on the opening gameweek? If you find yourself asking this question fear not as we've got the round up of all of the action so far.

AEK Athens 1-0 LASK

Opening up the action in this seasons Champions League was the absolutely colossal tie between AEK Athens and Austrian champions LASK... This is exactly the type of game to get you in the mood for European football am I right!

Well on paper it may not be the fixture you make sure to be free to watch but what happened in this game is certainly worth spending the time to watch.

In the first game Marin was kind enough to produce what may go down as the goal of the competiton by deciding to recreate the famous Dimitri Payet goal for West Ham.

🟡⚫️The goal that earned AEK Athens' first UEFA Champions League proper victory in 20 YEARS! Razvan Marin (30), take a bow! 😍✨ pic.twitter.com/dQ6OWgvoRm

— EuroFoot (@eurofootcom) September 9, 2026

Club Brugge 2-3 Aston Villa

Stepping up the excitement on paper was fellow early kickoff Brugge vs Villa which ended up producing an absolutely fantastic match.

New signings for Villa impressed, in particular new star forward Nicolas Jackson getting on the scoresheet for the Villains.

There were late scares as Tresoldi slotted away a penalty for the hosts in the 61st minute which appeared to be the beginning of a fightback, however Villa kept their cool to see out the tie and chalk down their first win of the league stage.

Dortmund 3-2 Villareal

It was a sad start for Dortmund as new summer signing Konstantinos Karestas had to be stretchered off the pitch in the 27th minute and was replaced by Arsenal loanee Ethan Nwaneri.

Aside from this not much action happened until the second half and in particular after the 80th minute.

Veteran striker Serhou Guirassy nudged Dortmund ahead in the 80th and then looked to have the game wrapped up by adding to this with a penalty in the 85th all before scoring an own goal in the 90+3rd minute for a very nervy finish.

Porto 0-2 Manchester City

A maiden night out in Europe for Enzo Marseca and his new side, and for the first half it appeared to be a much tougher outing than he would have hoped for being held to 0-0 going into the break.

You will be absolutely stunned to find out who was the man to break the deadlock... That's right Erling Haaland found the opener in the 47th, no prizes for guessing it was him, oh and he added a second in the 90+1st to seal the tie, again to nobodies shock.

Some very promising cameos came for the Citizens with 18-year-old midifelder Ayoubb Bouaddi in particular looking like he'd been a part of the City midfield for years during his appearance.

Things got heated between Erling Haaland and Pablo Rosario at the end of Man City's win vs. Porto 🌶️ pic.twitter.com/sipERISt8C

— B/R Football (@brfootball) September 8, 2026

Lille 2-3 Real Betis

Unfortunately for the hosts they were pecked by the Parrott in this one but more importantly Marc Bartra scored a brace??

Even just scanning through the teamsheets of both of these sides felt like a walk down memeory lane with both being stacked with players that may well be past their best but are recogniseable immediately.

Clearly they all aged like fine wine however as this was an absolutely fantastic watch ending 3-2 to the visitors and as mentioned new man in Betis Troy Parrott putting the nail in the coffin and making himself beloved to the fans in the 53rd.

Real Madrid 2-1 Inter

Ok this is the first on paper giant clash of the Champions League this year and it did not dissapoint with a home win for Madrid and a first win under the belt of Mourinho in this stint as Madrid boss against another one of his former clubs.

Similar to the City game you get no prizes for guessing who opened the scoring in this one, yes it was Mbappe and from this performance it's very clear to see he's yet again going to be making a huge push for the one trophy he's yet to get his hands on.

Madrid were able to add a second after an absolute howler of a mistake from Inter keeper Josep Martinez allowed Valverde to simply tackle the ball into the net, the Milanese side kept a solid level of pressure on Europe's giants and had a fair few chances however were only able to capitalise on Carlos Augusto's effort in the 77th.

Barcelona 5-1 Feyenoord

Barcelona are one of the favourites for the entire competition this year after a stellar campaign in LaLiga last season and a fantastic start to the campaign yet again this year.

It took all but 3 minutes for them to open their catalogue for this years Champions League with Raphina scoring an absolute beauty in just the third minute, in natural Barca fashion the goals didn't stop there with Karim Adeyemi bagging the second in the 22nd, Raphina with another in the 57th, Lamine Yamal in the 77th and finally fellow new arrival Gabriel Jesus in the 85th.

The main takeaway from this one however is simply how unbelievably good Yamal really is and that this season is going to be no different, he ran the show from the first minute and looks set to be the driving force if Barca are in fact going to challenge for the trophy.

That Raphinha goal 😱@Heineken | #UCLGOTD pic.twitter.com/btLO1gRuSx

— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) September 9, 2026

VFB Stuttgart 3-1 Viking

Stuttgart vs Viking was one of the very few games that didn't ramp up in the second half, rather they decided to do the complete opposite and begin at 1 million miles an hour before tapering off for the last leg of the tie.

Considering 4 goals were scored in this one it is very impressive to say that all of them were scored within a 12 minute period, including a hattrick by Stuttgart's Ermedin Demirovic.

Viking put in a compelling enough performance considering expectations of them but it was far from enough to overcome Demirovic's brilliance.

Liverpool 2-1 Atletico Madrid

The second of the giant matchups in the opening gameweek was Atletico Madrid travelling away to Anfield to take on Liverpool in what was always bound to be a fiesty clash after that famous Round of 16 tie in 2020.

Atletico took the lead courtesy of a Marcos Llorente run in behind and finish which really gave the game a feeling of deja vu however this time the hosts did not fall in the manner in which they did as holders of the title.

Dominik Szoboszlai pulled back the equaliser in the 40th before out of favour Alexis Mac Allister was there to put the reds ahead in the 50th minute which was enough to hold Atletico at bay and secure their payback even if it may be 6 years too late.

PSG 6-1 Slovan Bratislava

The opposition may well have been Slovan Bratislava and that is not meant as an insult to the Slovakian side however any hopes of PSG 'falling off' this year can very easily be put to bed after this display from the Parisians.

Ousmane Dembele opened the battering in the 17th minute before quickly adding another in the 23rd, Fabian Ruiz was the one to add the cherry on top with an 88th minute finish but in between all this is the evidence that new arrival Ferran Torres has had no struggle with adapting as the man bagged a hattrick in his Champions League debut for the side.

Slovan were able to get one back against the reigning champions which is something that they can take pride in but at the end of the day Yaya Toure's side will very much be wanting to put this absolute hammering behind them.

🚨Demeble already has a brace for PSG vs Bratislava pic.twitter.com/6et3uzbE5g

— Polymarket Sports (@PolymarketSport) September 9, 2026

Sporting CP 3-1 Galatasaray

One of the most evenly matched ties of the gameweek was Sporting vs Galatasaray and what on paper looked likely to be a good game did indeed live up to the expectations.

The scoring was opened by an own goal courtesy of Sporting's Goncalo Inacio before the Lisbon side switched on and equalised in the 27th, momentum swung back into the Portuguese sides favour in the second half with a Luis suarez penalty putting them ahead in the 57th and Rodrigo Zalazar sealing the victory in the 63rd.

Surprisingly new arrival Rafael Leao only made a cameo for the Turkish giants from the bench, which caught many including myself off guard expecting him to be an immediate starter.

Napoli 0-1 Arsenal

It was long and drawn out but a lot of lessons can be learnt from this Arsenal tie against Italian giants Napoli as the Gunners managed to snatch a late goal and keep dreams of replicating their 100% league stage win rate alive for yet another season.

Whatever was wrong with Martin Odegaard has seemingly vanished as the captain looks like a man possessed this season and has recaputred the form that made him an instant name on the team sheet in previous years, he continued to showcase this form through an absolute peach of a strike from outside the box in the 75th minute.

What also became very evident in this game is that Arsenal are very evidently a much better side when Kai Havertz is leading the attacking line rather than Viktor Gyokeres, within minutes of the Germans arrival on the field the attacking dynamics switched and were able to actually breach a very tough Napoli defence, so don't be shocked to see him be the main man up front this season.

Great play 😮‍💨

Martin Ødegaard rounds off a wonderful passing move for Arsenal 🔥

📺 Watch live on TNT Sports & HBO Max pic.twitter.com/FrH6gW8Ak4

— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) September 9, 2026