*No La Liga Team Won
*Man City Pegged Back
*Newcastle Win Away
The goal that won Wednesday night’s game for Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) was a portrait of how it had been played: all in, all the way to the end. A move that started deep in PSG’s half with Lee Kang-in chased backwards, turning, escaping and going at the same opponents who had been pursuing him, ended in the Barcelona penalty area with Gonçalo Ramos slotting past Wojciech Szczesny.
There were six seconds left, it was the 26th shot of an exhausting and enjoyable night, and now it really was over, Barcelona beaten.
For an hour of generous effort and high quality, they had gone at each other; for the last half an hour, as Barcelona tired and PSG somehow didn’t, Luis Enrique’s side kept pressing and ultimately justice was done.
The European champions still look a step ahead even with illustrious absentees, the Ballon d’Or winner, Ousmane Dembélé, among them.
Everywhere, in both sides, players caught the eye, as much for the commitment as the quality, the speed at which everything happened, the intent in every action, the refusal to step back from the edge.
They had gone at each other from the start. Fabián Ruiz sent the ball straight out from kick-off, his teammates sprinting after it in a pack, pressing Barcelona from the first throw. Ferran Torres, roared by the crowd, then slid in on Lucas Chevalier on 35 seconds.
If that was a statement of intent, what to call what followed? Achraf Hakimi had warned that this time Lamine Yamal faced the world’s best left-back and that, anyway, they would try not to leave Nuno Mendes one on one.
So the first time he got the ball, on 85 seconds, Lamine Yamal took on three instead, spinning away, roulette included, to set up an opening for Torres and what for a while felt like a personal battle.
The next time Lamine Yamal got possession, a drop of the shoulder took him away again only for Mendes to recover. Then an outrageous pass with the outside of his foot, travelling like a curler’s stone sliding home across the rink, found Torres. The striker went round Chevalier and shot towards what he thought was an unguarded goal only for Illia Zabarnyi to fly in from out of shot and block it.
When Barcelona took the lead it had started with Lamine Yamal’s alertness too but the decisive touch came from the other wing and an increasingly familiar source, Marcus Rashford’s first-time ball setting up Torres to score.
For the sixth successive game Rashford had a goal or an assist and there might have been more: a shot blocked was followed by a run stopped at the last as he sought Dani Olmo.
By then PSG were level. A man for whom “defender” is a woefully inadequate description, Mendes came flying out and through the middle of the field, going past people like Carl Lewis at a school sports day.
Frenkie de Jong took him out, but the studs on Mendes’s achilles didn’t stop him doing it again soon after: now he rocketed past Jules Koundé to set up Senny Mayulu, who finished.
PSG should have led before the break too, Bradley Barcola evading Gerard Martín and firing over.
Still they went at it. Fast feet enabled Barcola to rattle off a shot that Szczesny blocked and Pau Cubarsi blocked Hakimi.
Then a superb tackle from Eric García saved Barcelona one second and released them the next. The move ended when Lamine Yamal was taken down by a foul on the edge of the area which should have come with a second yellow for Mendes.
Almost immediately, another dash and perfectly delivered diagonal from Rashford found Lamine Yamal, who set up Olmo; Hakimi produced a fantastic block almost on the line.
Yet PSG were tilting the balance. Lee hit the post. Mendes’s last act before departing was to force a save.
And, with time slipping away and Lee chased down, he escaped to start one last move. There was Vitinha, as always, making sense of it all.
There too was Hakimi somehow still running, space opening before him, opportunity too. Invited in, he provided the perfect pass for Ramos to end it.
Martinelli, Saka On The Money
They like to talk about invincibility in this part of north London and it remains the only way to describe Mikel Arteta’s record with Arsenal in European group‑phase games at the Emirates Stadium. It is now eight wins out of eight in the Champions League with zero goals conceded. And if you add in the Europa League from earlier in his tenure, it is 14 victories out of 14 with two goals against.
Olympiakos pitched up with a remarkable statistic of their own. They had won on their past three visits to this ground, the most recent two coming in the knockout rounds of the Europa League, even if the second in 2020-21 did not prevent an aggregate defeat. The first was in a Champions League group‑stage match in 2015-16.
Nobody expected anything other than another Arsenal success, the latest demonstration of the power and depth that Arteta has at his disposal despite this being a decent Olympiakos vintage. It was nervier than the home crowd would have liked in the closing stages, the visitors pushing and making for a couple of scares.
This Arsenal team is not easily breached. We are into October and still they have let in only three goals in all competitions – one of them from open play. Gabriel Martinelli scored in the 12th minute and although Olympiakos had their moments they could not find a way past David Raya.
Arsenal were wasteful in the final third. Martinelli was guilty and so were Arteta’s other starters in the front line – Viktor Gyökeres and Leandro Trossard. But when Bukayo Saka, on as a substitute, took a pass from the excellent Martin Ødegaard to jam a shot through the legs of the Olympiakos goalkeeper, Kostas Tzolakis, in stoppage time, it was over. Arsenal have built on the 2-0 win at Athletic Bilbao in their Champions League opener. Nights such as this only add extra layers to their reputation.
Arsenal had to go back to November 2019 for the previous time they had failed to win a group match at this stadium in Europe; it was the defeat against Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League, which led to the sacking of Unai Emery, the caretaker hire of Freddie Ljungberg and the arrival of Arteta, whose first European assignment was against Olympiakos in the last 32 of the competition that season. It ended in a last-gasp extra‑time defeat here and an away‑goals exit.
Of the numerous eye-catching lines around this encounter, many were linked to the past. When had Arsenal previously conceded a goal in a European group game on their own turf? It was against Rapid Vienna in the 4-1 Europa League win in December 2020.
Ødegaard was in the mood from the first whistle, bringing the urgency on the ball; the incision. The captain sparked an early move that ended with Martinelli somehow glancing a Myles Lewis-Skelly cross off target; Martinelli was all alone in front of goal. It seemed to come off his shoulder.
No matter. It was not long before Arsenal led and it was Martinelli with the tap-in from a tight angle after Gyökeres saw Tzolakis deflect his shot against a post. Ødegaard had played the pass to Gyökeres and it was all about the striker’s strength; he bulldozed in between two defenders to make it happen.
It was Martinelli on his less favoured right flank; Trossard on the left. And Martinelli simply had to play in his teammate on 21 minutes when Arsenal broke with two against one. Instead, he tried to out-run the last man and could not get around him.
Arsenal ought to have had more before the interval. Gyökeres ignored a square pass for Martinelli after an Ødegaard through ball and shot at Tzolakis while Gabriel Magalhães went close after an Ødegaard corner. Gyökeres swiped another chance high after a lovely Trossard ball.
Olympiakos came to play. Ayoub El Kaabi looped a header too close to Raya just before Martinelli’s goal and their big chance of the first half came in the 32nd minute when Daniel Podence caught a volley so sweetly from Santiago Hezze’s cross. Raya tipped over – an outstanding reflex save.
The mood was different in the second half. It was not the handbrake from Arteta but his idea seemed to be containment. Arsenal changed down through the gears. Trossard blew a couple of chances and there was anxiety in the home seats; cries for their players to wake up as they survived an Olympiakos thrust on 66 minutes.
Podence’s cross was made to measure for El Kaabi, whose header was well saved by Raya. The striker poked home on the rebound but the offside flag had gone up against him. Arteta, who would withdraw Gabriel Magalhães as a precaution against injury, saw Tzolakis deny Ødegaard; he should not have been able to make the save. Olympiakos retained hope. Saka snuffed it out.
PHOTO CAPTION: Ferran Torres, on the ground, scores the opening goal for Barcelona against PSG. Photograph: AP.
Wednesday’s Other Champions League Results From Across Europe
Qarabag – FC Copenhagen 2:0
Royale Union SG – Newcastle 0:4
Bayer Leverkusen – PSV 1:1
Dortmund – Ath Bilbao 4:1
Monaco – Manchester City 2:2
Napoli – Sporting CP 2:1
Villarreal – Juventus 2:2
