It was a night of goals in the Champions League on Tuesday, as 43 of them went in during the nine games that took place. From the Spanish perspective, there were 13 goals in three outings, but not as many of them in favour of the LaLiga sides.
Barcelona kicked off the evening in emphatic fashion with a 6-1 win over Olympiakos, capitalising on a red card to pull clear of the Greek giants with four goals in 11 minutes. Later on, Atletico Madrid were on the wrong side of a similar rout, as they conceded four goals in 13 minutes to Arsenal in London. Meanwhile Villarreal received a visit from Manchester City, who sunk the Yellow Submarine comfortably with first-half goals from Erling Haaland and Bernardo Silva.
Football España analyses Champions League round with CNN
Football España Editor Ruairidh Barlow joined CNN to analyse the games that had taken place, starting with a somewhat depressing defeat for Atletico Madrid, who failed to recover from conceding the opener.
On the other hand, Barcelona will have been relieved to get back to their attacking best ahead of El Clasico this weekend with Real Madrid. It came after a concerning performance, albeit a win over Girona, but not all of their issues have been fixed by their win over the Greek giants. Meanwhile Villarreal threatened to make a game of it against City, but were outclassed on the night by City.
Marcus Rashford can’t wait for El Clásico. Fresh off a brace against Olympiacos, the English forward arrives at the Bernabéu in top form and full of confidence. “I came to Barça for games like this”, he said after what he called his best performance yet. @sport pic.twitter.com/vCSu6KJfSM
— barcacentre (@barcacentre) October 22, 2025
Fermin Lopez’s hat-trick performance
Fermin Lopez scored a hat-trick in Barcelona’s win, the first by a Spanish player for the Catalan giants in the Champions League era. The 22-year-old scored three times with his four shots, and completed 90 minutes for the first time since coming back from his injury, after 45 minutes of action against Girona. Lopez is currently averaging a goal every 83 minutes this season.
