UEFA Champions League: Big wins for Manchester City, Barcelona; Atletico stunned

LONDON: Erling Haaland back-heeled home a stunning strike, the first of two goals on the night for Manchester City's goal-scoring machine, as City cruised past Sparta Prague 5-0 on Wednesday to remain unbeaten in their Champions League campaign.

Phil Foden, John Stones and Matheus Nunes also scored for Pep Guardiola's side who climbed to third in Europe's elite club competition with seven points after three games, while Sparta have four points.

City are now unbeaten in 26 successive Champions League matches, the longest unbeaten streak by any club in the competition's history, breaking the record of 25 by Manchester United from 2007-2009.

Haaland was the star of the show, bringing the blue-clad City fans out of their seats at Etihad Stadium when he scored in spectacular fashion in the 58th minute, leaping high to backheel home Savinho's cross from out of the air.

The 24-year-old Norwegian completed his brace with a more traditional finish in the 68th minute, easily slotting home a pass from Savinho to put his scoring tally at 44 Champions League goals in 42 games.

Haaland climbed level with Didier Drogba in 16th spot on the all-time scoring list in the European competition, although Drogba took 92 games to reach the mark.

Foden got the 2023 Champions League winners on the scoreboard in the third minute when he latched on to a pass from Manuel Akanji and slotted the ball into the bottom corner.

Stones padded City's lead in the 64th minute when he leapt to head home from a superb cross from Nunes.

Both Foden and Stones were instrumental in City's 2-1 Premier League victory at Wolverhampton Wanderers on Sunday, with Foden delivering the corner which led to Stones's stoppage-time winner.

City were awarded a penalty in the 88th minute, for a foul by Angelo Preciado, and Nunes fired his shot past keeper Peter Vindahl Jensen.

While Czech champions Sparta had a few chances on the counter-attack in the first half, City pummelled the visitors with 22 shots to their five on the night, with 10 of them on target.

Barcelona captain Raphinha scored a hat-trick to lead them to a commanding 4-1 home victory over Bayern Munich, ending a near decade-long winless run against the German powerhouses.

Raphinha's inspired night started when he gave Barca the lead a little over a minute after kickoff as he received a fine pass through by midfielder Fermin Lopez, beat the offside trap before rounding the onrushing Manuel Neuer and tapping into the empty net.

Harry Kane levelled the score with a volley in the 18th minute but Robert Lewandowski put the home side back in front in the 36th minute after a mistake by Bayern's defence and Raphinha extended Barca's lead with two goals from quick counter-attacks either side of halftime.

Barca are ninth in the Champions League standings on six points from three games while Bayern are 23rd on three points after a second consecutive defeat.

Liverpool's Darwin Nunez took full advantage of a rare start with the winner in his side's 1-0 victory at RB Leipzig as their 100% start in the Champions League continued.

With Diogo Jota ruled out because of injury, Uruguayan Nunez got his chance and delivered in the 27th minute by poking home Mohamed Salah's header.

Nunez, who has been used predominantly as a substitute this season, also had a clear penalty turned down as he gave manager Arne Slot plenty to think about.

Liverpool's sixth away win out of six in all competitions this season maintain an excellent start to the Slot reign with the Dutchman winning a club record 11 of his first games since replacing Anfield favourite Juergen Klopp.

Liverpool are second in the 36-team Champions League group phase with nine points, sandwiched between Premier League rivals Aston Villa who also have nine and Manchester City (seven).

Leipzig twice had goals disallowed and Liverpool keeper Caoimhin Kelleher made two important saves as the Bundesliga club's wait for a first point goes on.

Lille's Jonathan David scored twice as the French side stunned hosts Atletico Madrid with a 3-1 comeback Champions League win on Wednesday to make it two wins from their last two matches while piling more pressure on the struggling Spanish team.

Lille, who have their keeper and man-of-the-match Lucas Chevalier to thank for the win, have now beaten their second Madrid team in consecutive matchdays after also stunning holders Real Madrid 1-0 earlier in October.

The win moved Lille to six points, while Atletico are on three with just one win from their three games so far.

Substitute Marcus Thuram scored in stoppage time to give Inter Milan a 1-0 win at Swiss champions Young Boys after the Italian side had missed a penalty early in the second half.

Inter, finalists in 2023, struggled against the hosts' solid defence until Federico Dimarco teed up Thuram with a brilliant cross from the left and the France forward sealed the win from point-blank range.

Inter, who beat Red Star Belgrade 4-0 at home after earning a precious goalless draw at Manchester City in their competition opener, moved up to seventh place with seven points from three games.

Atalanta spurned several chances as they were held to a 0-0 draw at home by a defensively resilient Celtic.

Atalanta's first European match against a Scottish side was a largely one-sided encounter as the hosts had 23 total attempts with seven on target.

The draw left both Atalanta and Celtic in the playoff positions in the standings, with Atalanta in 12th place with five points and Celtic in 18th with four points after three rounds.

Teenager Antoni Milambo netted twice as Dutch side Feyenoord sprang a Champions League surprise with a 3-1 away victory at Portuguese giants Benfica.

Benfica went into the match on the back of six successive wins in all competitions but despite a frantic late effort at a comeback came unstuck as Feyenoord put in a confident performance and were deserved winners.

Ayase Ueda got the opener for the Dutch side before Milambo put the visitors were 2-0 up at halftime. Although the hosts pulled one back in the 66th minute through Kerem Akturkoglu, Milambo scored again in stoppage time to make sure of the points.

Sandro Kulenovic and Bruno Petkovic scored second-half goals as Dinamo Zagreb secured a 2-0 win at 10-man RB Salzburg, only their second ever away victory in the league phase of the competition.

Dinamo took the lead they deserved when Kulenovic side-footed home from 12 yards after being teed up from the right wing by Stefan Ristovski as the Salzburg defenders stood statuesque in the box.

The home side, who have now lost their opening three games, had their misery compounded by a red card for goalkeeper Alexander Schlager as he handled the ball outside of his box when he instinctively saved Petar Sucic's goalbound shot.

Ristovski was again the provider for Dinamo’s second as his pass found Petkovic and the latter rifled a shot into the bottom corner of the net to ensure his side have four points from their opening three matches. Agencies

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