Champions League talking points: Lionel Messi beats Gigi Buffon and Robert Lewandowski proves a point
Talking points: Paris Saint-Germain's glittering front three are already beginning to gel, Lionel Messi is as good as ever and Radja Nainggolan pleads for patience
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Your support makes all the difference.The Champions League group stage kicked off on Tuesday evening, on a hectic evening featuring eight matches, 28 goals and no end of drama.
Two English sides were in action, with Premier League champions Chelsea thrashing FK Qarabag 6-0 and Manchester United beating FC Basel 3-0.
A number of Europe’s biggest and best sides also began their continental campaigns, with Paris Saint-Germain destroying Celtic and Barcelona beating Juventus.
Here are five talking points from last night, from the games you may have missed.
Messi finally scores against Buffon
Lionel Messi finally scored against goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon as Barcelona beat Juventus 3-0 in their first match of the Champions League group stage on Tuesday.
Messi grabbed his 95th and 96th goals in the Champions League in the win, but his first ever against the 39-year-old Buffon, who had kept him without a goal in three previous meetings.
New signing Ousmane Dembele helped in Messi'sopening goal on a counterattack that caught Juventus' defence off-guard. Messi took the ball from Dembele, worked a quick one-two with Luis Suarez and then rolled a left-footed shot just inside the far post.
Messi got his double in the 69th when he took the ball on the right side and cut back to go around two defenders. He left Buffon with no chance against another left-footed strike which smacked the lower corner of his net.
PSG’s front three already look formidable
While it is doubtful Neymar will be able to repeat the kind of spell-binding displays he managed alongside Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez, the more he plays alongside Edinson Cavani and Kylian Mbappé the slicker they will all become.
They all got on the scoresheet in PSG’s rout of Celtic, and the Brazilian proved that his new team’s attack is not solely built around him.After scoring the opener, Neymar could have gone for goal himself when presented with a back-post chance just after the half-hour mark but he unselfishly decided to head down for strike partner Mbappe to eventually ram home the second.
During his Nou Camp days, Neymar was seldom expected to involve himself in the more labour-intensive aspects of defending and he looks to have been given the same licence by PSG boss Unai Emery. But there is good cause for that as it allows Neymar to keep himself fresh for the areas of the pitch where he can be at his most dangerous.
Lewandowski does his talking on the pitch
After criticising Bayern Munich's transfer policy in an outspoken interview, Robert Lewandowski did his talking on the pitch against Anderlecht on Tuesday to kickstart the German side's Champions League campaign.
Champions League
Tuesday's results
Benfica 1 CSKA Moscow 2
Man United 3 FC Basel 0
Celtic 0 PSG 5
Bayern Munich 3 Anderlecht 0
Chelsea 6 Qarabag 0
Roma 0 Atletico Madrid 0
Barcelona 3 Juventus 0
Olympiakos 2 Sporting 3
The Pole's forthright comments suggesting Bayern no longer compete in the transfer market dominated the build-up to the Group B game, with the club further unsettled by Thomas Mueller talking about a possible move away and reports that Hoffenheim's Julian Nagelsmann is lined up to succeed Carlo Ancelotti as manager.
A 2-0 weekend defeat to Nagelsmann's present side confirmed Bayern's worst start to a league campaign in six years and Lewandowski's outburst led to a rare public rebuke by CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, who indicated that the Pole should stick to what he is good at.
Anyone doubting what that might be had to wait just 10 minutes into Tuesday's game as Lewandowski threatened on goal before being hacked down by Sven Kums, who was given a red card.
The Pole got up, dusted himself down and scored Bayern's opener from the penalty spot. It was his seventh in six games this season, and second-half efforts from Thiago and Joshua Kimmich sealed a routine 3-0 win.
Nainggolan pleads for patience
Roma launched their Champions League campaign with a hard-fought 0-0 Group C draw against Atletico Madrid, and afterwards Radja Nainggolan reminded the club’s fans that the players are not robots as they attempt to find their feet under new coach Eusebio di Francesco.
They needed the help of a post in stoppage time as Saul Niguez threatened to snatch victory for the 2016-17 semi-finalists at the Stadio Olimpico, but midfielder Nainggolan is convinced there is more to come.
“We are at the start of the season, there are new tactics and a different style of working to what we were used to. It's normal that it will take a bit of time to be 100 per cent for 90 minutes,” he said after the match.
“But only through work will we get better at this. We have changed a lot - to a new style of play with a new coach. It will take time to do everything perfectly.
“We are not robots, we are working on it and we hope to keep getting better in a number of ways.”
Benfica stunned by CSKA Moscow
The Portuguese champions were tipped as Manchester United’s main rivals in Group A, and began their campaign at home to CSKA Moscow, who finished bottom of Tottenham Hotspur’s group last season.
A comfortable victory appeared to be on the cards, but substitute Timur Zhamaletdinov scored four minutes after coming on as CSKA Moscow hit back from a goal behind to stun an uninspired Benfica with a 2-1 away win.
The Portuguese champions struggled to get into gear in the first half as their Russian opponents sat back, but undeservedly took the lead when Haris Seferovic applied a neat finishing touch to a flowing move started by Alex Grimaldo and continued by Andrija Zivkovic.
But CSKA hit back within 13 minutes when Andre Almeida handled and Vitinho converted the penalty, and snatched all three points through Zhamaletdinov.
(Additional reporting by agencies.)
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