Vinicius Junior and Raphinha both scored hat-tricks for Real Madrid and Barcelona against German opposition this week – and Saturday is El Clásico.

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

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

And what on earth was that goal from Erling Haaland, who channeled his inner Zlatan Ibrahimovic during Man City’s defeat to Sparta Prague?

We analyze the key talking points from Wednesday’s Champions League action…

Raphinha and Vinicius warm up well for El Clasico…

Even Raphinha’s biggest admirers during his successful two-season spell at Leeds United certainly did not expect this. After a few lackluster years since his move to Barcelona in 2022, the Brazilian suddenly looks like Barcelona’s defining player and is also wearing the captain’s armband.

Raphinha scored two well-taken goals here, which ended the first half. She stormed behind and surrounded Manuel Neuer in the opening minute, then cut inside and fired home on the stroke of half-time. The curious thing is that it is the first one that is more typical of his play this season. Although he returned to winger tonight, he thrived in a number 10 role, running past Robert Lewandowski and getting past the opposition defence.

His glorious hat-trick goal was almost a combination of the two, starting from wide and roaring from behind to finish confidently into the far corner. Three shots and three goals. Especially in honor of his hundredth appearance for the club.

Lewandowski is still the main threat in front of goal and Lamine Yamal is the showstopper, showing a series of stepovers and nutmegs here. But while Lewandowski’s ability to find the net was never in doubt, and Yamal’s talent is evident, Raphinha’s sensational form is far more surprising – and a huge boost for a Barcelona side that previously seemed lacking in inspiration .

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

This weekend, Spain’s top two teams and their in-form Brazilians will face off in El Clasico (8pm GMT, 3pm ET).

Michael Cox

English clubs are quite at the top

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

Fresh from the relative embarrassment of failing to claim fifth place in the Champions League due to overall underperformance in Europe’s three major club competitions last season, the Premier League sides have returned with a vengeance. Aston Villa, one of the surprise packages of this season’s tournament, sit at the top of the Champions League with three wins from three, six goals scored and zero conceded.

Liverpool are currently second, the only other side with a perfect record so far after beating RB Leipzig in Germany on Wednesday. Manchester City, who are on seven points, round out the top three with nine goals scored and zero goals conceded after beating Sparta Prague, while Arsenal sit in ninth place, just outside the automatic knockout places, and have also not conceded a goal has received.

(Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)

Arsenal’s clean sheet record will be put to the test in the next round against Inter, the team who kept City at bay in the opening matchweek.

But given their strong start in Europe, all English clubs will be feeling good about their prospects of automatically qualifying for the knockouts – and it bodes well for the English coefficient when it comes to the allocation of places for the Champions League of next season.

What the hell was that about Erling Haaland?

Just when you think you’ve seen everything from serial record-breaker Erling Haaland, the Norwegian turns up at the Etihad Stadium on a Wednesday night with something out of this world.

By Haaland’s ridiculous standards, two games without a goal is a barren spell, and Sparta Prague would have done well to extend their setbacks into a magical moment minutes from time.

With City leading 1-0, Brazilian international Savinho took the measure of Sparta’s Matej Rynes before throwing the full-back off balance with a step-over and a shoulder roll. As Savinho moved towards the byline, Haaland made a sharp move from the far post, about eight yards from goal, into the center of the net, in line with the penalty spot.

Savinho made a cross that appeared to go past the Norwegian before the 24-year-old connected with an outrageous back heel strike.

(Photo by Copa/Getty Images)

With his foot aligned with his head, Haaland somehow guided 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 acrobatic finish you will never forget 💫 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. Haaland’s, however, is perhaps even more impressive.

And after that moment of brilliance, the floodgates opened at the Etihad, with the Premier League champions eventually winning the match 5-0.

Brest’s fairytale tour through Europe continues

There’s a Cinderella story in this season’s Champions League, and it’s set in the northwestern corner of France.

In their European debut season, Brest, who only won promotion to Ligue 1 in 2019, have collected an impressive seven points from their first three games. They started their Champions League odyssey with a 2-1 win over the equally unfavorable Sturm Graz before convincingly beating RB Salzburg, also from Austria, 4-0 on October 1.

However, holding reigning German Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen to a 1-1 draw may be their biggest scalp yet.

(DAMIEN MEYER/AFP via Getty Images)

Germany international Florian Wirtz opened the scoring for Leverkusen in the 24th minute at the Stade Francis-Le Ble in Brest. He received the ball on the edge of the penalty area before finishing past Marco Buzot in the hosts’ goal. With that finish, Wirtz became the fifth player born after the millennium to score fifteen major European goals, after Phil Foden, Rodrygo, Erling Haaland and Vinicius Junior.

However, Brest fired back 15 minutes later through former Norwich City striker Pierre Lees-Melou, who guided 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 during the second half, reducing them to one clear chance and an xG of just 0.97 over 90.

According to The AthleticsAccording to the Champions League projections, which are based on data from Opta, Brest were predicted to collect just eight points in this season’s revamped competition phase – a total they already look set to comfortably surpass. Their form in Ligue 1 has taken a hit (they currently sit 11th in France’s 18-team top tier), but fans will surely trade domestic success for a dream run to the knockout stages of Europe’s premier club competition .

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

What about the Red Bull clubs?

Forget the demonstrations at your former clubs, Jurgen. If the performance of the Red Bull teams in the Champions League is anything to go by, you have work to do in your new job.

Red Bull Salzburg is currently 34th in the league stage, two places from the bottom. They started their campaign with a 3-0 defeat to Sparta Prague, before suffering a 4-0 defeat to Brest. 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 look slim.

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Like Salzburg, RB Leipzig have also suffered three defeats in their opening trio. However, the Germans, who are currently second in the Bundesliga, have had to compete against Atletico, Juventus and Liverpool to start the tournament – perhaps the most challenging opener for any team this season.

Leipzig will look to their next match, an away match against Celtic, as an opportunity to record their first win, and they end the league phase against fellow strugglers Sturm Graz. But with Sporting, Inter and red-hot Villa still in action, it would take an extraordinary turnaround for the Saxony club to progress.

Jonathan David, the master of Madrid

Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid will be happy to see the back of Jonathan David.

David, a native of Brooklyn, New York, has had a great start to the season. He has scored five goals in eight games in Ligue 1, including a hat-trick against Le Havre, but it is in European competition that the striker is attracting international attention.

In Lille’s last match, David scored the winning goal in a historic 1-0 victory over tournament holders Real Madrid, and on Wednesday he went one step further with a brace against their arch-rivals. With the score at 1-1, David calmly lifted a penalty over Atletico goalkeeper Jan Oblak to put the French side ahead in Madrid.

(OSCAR DEL POZO/AFP via Getty Images)

Fifteen minutes later, David put the icing on the cake with a deflected left foot volley that went over the helpless goalkeeper. Lille are now 15th in the standings and are firmly in the hunt for qualification for the knockout stages.

David, who is out of contract this summer and attracting the attention of some of Europe’s biggest clubs, could even make a move in January before Lille reaches that stage.

The results of competition week three

• 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 matches takes place in the week of November 5 and 6 and features some blockbuster clashes: Real Madrid vs Milan, Inter vs Arsenal and Liverpool vs Leverkusen.

(Photos: Getty Images)