Champions League briefing: Raphinha meets Vinicius – and what about Haaland's hindquarters?

Vinicius Junior and Raphinha both scored hat-tricks for Real Madrid and Barcelona against German opponents this week – and El Clasico takes place on Saturday.

With wins on Wednesday for Liverpool and Manchester City, the English clubs sit atop the Champions League standings at 1-2-3, and the four Premier League teams (hello Arsenal) have conceded just a single goal between them.

Madrid clubs must be fed up with the sight of Lille and Canada striker Jonathan David after he gave them a 3-1 away win at Atletico Madrid, weeks after his goal helped them beat Real in France.

And what the hell kind of goal was that from Erling Haaland, channeling his inner Zlatan Ibrahimovic in Man City's win over Sparta Prague?

We analyze the most important talking points from Wednesday's Champions League game…

Raphinha and Vinicius warm up well for El Clasico…

Even Raphinha's biggest admirers during his successful two seasons at Leeds United certainly didn't expect this. After a few mediocre years since joining Barcelona in 2022, the Brazilian suddenly appears to be Barcelona's defining player and also wears the captain's armband.

Raphinha scored two well-taken goals here to end the first half, rushing behind and rounding Manuel Neuer in the first minute, then cutting inside and firing the ball into the goal just before half-time. The strange thing is that the former is more typical of his play this season. As he returns to winger tonight, he thrives in the number 10 role, outpacing Robert Lewandowski and running past the opposition defense.

His glorious hat-trick goal was almost a combination of both: he started on the outside edge, shot backwards and confidently finished into the far corner. Three shots and three goals. This is exactly his 100th appearance for the club.

Lewandowski is still the biggest goal threat and Lamine Yamal is the showstopper, showing a series of flips and nutmegs here. But while Lewandowski's ability to find the net has never been in question and Yamal's talent is obvious, Raphinha's sensational form is more surprising overall – and a huge boost for a Barcelona side previously lacking inspiration.

On Tuesday, Vinicius Junior scored three goals as Real Madrid beat Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League. Twenty-four hours later, his Brazilian teammate did the same for Barcelona, ​​also against a German opponent.

This weekend, Spain's two top teams and their in-form Brazilians will face off in El Clasico (8:00 p.m. GMT, 3:00 p.m. ET).

Michael Cox

English clubs are pretty high up

Javier Tebas, Florentino Perez and all other critics of the dominance of the Premier League are now looking the other way: English clubs are dominating the Champions League this season.

After the relative embarrassment of failing to clinch the fifth 'coefficient' Champions League place due to an overall subpar performance in Europe's three major club competitions last season, Premier League teams have returned with a vengeance. Aston Villa, one of the surprise packages of this year's tournament, leads the Champions League table with three wins from three games, six goals scored and zero goals conceded.

Liverpool are currently second and the only other team with a perfect record so far after beating RB Leipzig in Germany on Wednesday. Manchester City, on seven points, completes the top three with nine goals scored and zero conceded after beating Sparta Prague, while Arsenal are in ninth place, just outside the automatic knockout places, and also hasn't conceded a goal yet.

(Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)

Arsenal's clean sheet record will be tested in the next round of games against Inter, the team that kept City at bay in the first gameweek.

However, given their strong start in Europe, all English clubs are in good spirits for automatic qualification for the knockout stages – and that bodes well for England's coefficients when it comes to awarding Champions League places next season.

What the hell was that from Erling Haaland?

When you think you've seen everything possible from serial record-breaker Erling Haaland, the Norwegian turns up at the Etihad Stadium on a Wednesday evening with something out of this world.

By Haaland's ridiculous standards, two games without a goal is a fruitless period, and Sparta Prague had done a good job of extending their misfortune until a magical moment minutes before the hour mark.

With City leading 1-0, Brazil international Savinho eyed Sparta's Matej Rynes before unbalancing the full-back with a stepover and a fall on his shoulder. As Savinho advanced towards the baseline, Haaland made a sharp move from the far post, about eight meters from the goal, into the center of the net, exactly at the height of the penalty spot.

Savinho parried a cross that appeared to have gone past the Norwegian before the 24-year-old struck the ball with an incredible aerial backfoot.

(Photo by Copa/Getty Images)

With his foot in line with his head, Haaland somehow directed his shot past Peter Vindahl Jensen, bouncing once before crossing the line into the top right corner.

ACROBATIC BACK HEEL! 🤯

43 goals in 42 Champions League games for Erling Haaland… and this one was scored in style 🤖

📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/hgwjPgSHTD

– Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) October 23, 2024

HOW!?! 🤯

Erling Haaland with an unforgettable acrobatic finish 💫 pic.twitter.com/DANwBX30JY

— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) October 23, 2024

It was reminiscent of Zlatan Ibrahimovic's goal against Toronto FC in 2018, his 500th goal in professional football. However, Haaland's is probably even more impressive.

And after that moment of brilliance, the gates opened at the Etihad and the Premier League champions eventually won the game 5-0.

Brest's fairytale run in Europe continues

There's a Cinderella story in this season's Champions League, and it's taking place in northwest France.

In its first European season, Brest, who only gained promotion to Ligue 1 in 2019, took a remarkable seven points from their first three games. They began their Champions League odyssey with a 2-1 win over the equally unfavorable Sturm Graz before convincingly defeating fellow Austrians RB Salzburg 4-0 on October 1st.

However, the 1-1 draw against reigning German Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen is probably their greatest success to date.

(DAMIEN MEYER/AFP via Getty Images)

German international Florian Wirtz scored Leverkusen's first goal in the 24th minute at the Stade Francis-Le Blé in Brest when he received the ball on the edge of the penalty area and fired past Marco Buzot in the hosts' goal. This made Wirtz the fifth player born after the turn of the millennium to score 15 major European goals, after Phil Foden, Rodrygo, Erling Haaland and Vinicius Junior.

However, Brest shot back 15 minutes later through former Norwich City striker Pierre Lees-Melou, who directed a volley from outside the penalty area into the bottom right corner of the net. Despite Leverkusen's perceived superiority, Brest kept their opponents at bay in the second half, reducing them to one clear chance and an xG of just 0.97 beyond the 90.

Accordingly The athleteAccording to Brest's Champions League predictions, based on Opta data, Brest will only score eight points in this season's revised league stage – a total they are already expected to comfortably exceed. Their form in Ligue 1 has suffered a setback (they currently sit 11th in the 18-team French top flight), but fans will certainly be pitting domestic success against a dream run to the knockout stages of Europe's premier competition Exchange club competition.

Just ask PSG fans. The French champions are currently top of Ligue 1 but sit 19th in the Champions League table with just one win in three – 14 places behind Brest.

What's wrong with the Red Bull clubs?

Forget the demonstrations at your former clubs, Jürgen – if the performances of the Red Bull teams in the Champions League are anything to go by, you have a lot to look forward to in your new job.

Red Bull Salzburg are currently in 34th place in the league phase, two places behind the bottom of the table. They opened their season with a 3-0 away defeat against Sparta Prague before defeating Brest 4-0. This week they lost 2-0 to Dinamo Zagreb and with PSG, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid still waiting for the Austrians, the chances of their season getting much better seem slim.

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Like Salzburg, RB Leipzig also suffered three defeats from their opening trio. However, the Germans, who are currently second in the Bundesliga, faced Atletico, Juventus and Liverpool at the start of the tournament – arguably the most difficult opening for any team this season.

Leipzig will look at their next game, an away game against Celtic, as an opportunity for their first win and end the league phase against fellow strugglers Sturm Graz. But with Sporting, Inter and red-hot FC Villa still playing, it would take an extraordinary turnaround for the Saxon club to progress.

Jonathan David, the master of Madrid

Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid will be happy to have Jonathan David's back.

David, born in Brooklyn, New York, started the season with flying colors. He has scored five goals in eight Ligue 1 games, including a hat-trick against Le Havre, but it has been in European competition that the striker has attracted international attention.

In Lille's last game, David scored the winning goal in a historic 1-0 victory over defending champions Real Madrid and went one better with a brace against their arch-rivals on Wednesday. With the score at 1-1, David calmly shot a penalty over Atlético goalkeeper Jan Oblak to give the French the lead in Madrid.

(OSCAR DEL POZO/AFP via Getty Images)

Fifteen minutes later, David put the icing on the cake with a deflected left-footed volley that flew over the helpless goalkeeper. Lille are now in 15th place in the table and are firmly in the hunt for qualification for the knockout phase.

David, whose contract expires in the summer and is attracting the attention of some of Europe's biggest clubs, could even move in January before Lille reach that stage.

The results of the third game week

• AC Milan 3 Club Brugge 1
• Monaco 5 Red Star Belgrade 1
• Arsenal 1 Shakhtar Donetsk 0
• Aston Villa 2 Bologna 0
• Girona 2 Slovan Bratislava 0
• Juventus 0 Stuttgart 1
• Paris Saint Germain 1 PSV Eindhoven 1
• Real Madrid 5 Borussia Dortmund 2
• Sturm Graz 0 Sporting Lisbon 2
• Atalanta 0 Celtic 0
• Brest 1 Bayer Leverkusen 1
• Atletico Madrid 1 Lille 3
• Barcelona 4 Bayern Munich 1
• Benfica 1 Feyenoord 3
• Manchester City 5 Sparta Prague 0
• RB Leipzig 0 Liverpool 1
• Red Bull Salzburg 0 Dinamo Zagreb 2
• Young Boys 0 Inter Milan 1

What's next?

The next round of games will take place in the week of 5/6. November and offers some blockbuster duels: Real Madrid against Milan, Inter against Arsenal and Liverpool against Leverkusen.

(Photos: Getty Images)