Haaland brace not enough for City in Monaco; PSG win in Barcelona

Erling Haaland’s brace in his 50th Champions League match for a competition tally of 52 was not enough as Manchester City had to swallow a last-gasp 2-2 draw at Monaco, while title holders Paris Saint-Germain won a heavyweight duel 2-1 at Barcelona on Wednesday.

Haaland scored twice before the break but Monaco stole a point in the 90th minute from a penalty by England defender Eric Dier.

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The other English sides did better as Arsenal beat Greek side Olympiakos 2-0 from Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka to keep their perfect start, and Newcastle United triumphed 4-0 in Belgium at Union Saint-Gilloise, with Anthony Gordon converting two penalties and Nick Woltemade getting his first Champions League goal.

In Barcelona, the hosts led from Ferran Torres but PSG were the better team, levelled from teenager Senny Mayulu, and Goncalo Ramos gave them full points in the 90th minute.

Elsewhere, Kevin de Bruyne set up Rasmus Hojlund twice as Serie A champions Napoli beat Lisbon side Sporting 2-1. Juventus had to swallow a last minute 2-2 equalizer at Villarreal from their former player Renato Veiga, after Juve’s Federico Gatti got a superb overhead kick goal.

Borussia Dortmund trounced Athletic Bilbao 4-1 from Daniel Svensson, Carney Chukwuemeka, Serhou Guirassy and Julian Brandt, while Bundesliga rivals Bayer Leverkusen were held 1-1 by PSV Eindhoven.

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Azerbaijan’s Qarabag got their second win, 2-0 over Copenhagen, to join Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Inter Milan, PSG and Arsenal on a maximum six points after two of eight matchdays.

City held

Haaland opened the scoring in the 15th when he took up a long ball from Josko Gvardiol and chipped home over goalkeeper Philipp Köhn.

Monaco were level three minutes later when Jordan Teze fired into the top left corner, but, after Phil Foden was denied by the crossbar, Haaland restored the lead with a 44th minute header.

City had chances for a third but then had to swallow a surprise late equalizer when Dier was kicked in the face by Nico Gonzalez.

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“I don’t feel good – we didn’t win. We did something unnecessarily in the second half. We didn’t play good enough, we didn’t deserve to win. We need more energy. We needed to get at them more like in the first half,” Haaland told TNT Sport.

PSG beat Barca again

PSG missed key players including Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembele and Marquinhos, and they trailed from Torres’ strike in the 15th minute after Lamine Yamal had won the ball.

But the champions levelled in the 38th from Mayulu, after a great run by Nuno Mendes.

Bradley Barcola blazed over for PSG, and Dani Olmo was blocked twice by PSG defenders, before a thrilling finale where substitute Lee Kang In first hit the post for the visitors who then got the winner after all when the unmarked Ramos turned in a low cross from Achraf Hakimi.

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“We found it tough to begin with. Barcelona are talented and they kept the ball so well for 20 minutes, we were working hard. But with the goal we scored, the confidence really grew and, going in at half-time at 1-1, we built our attitude and confidence,” PSG coach Luis Enrique said.

Arsenal stay perfect

At Emirates Stadium, Martinelli headed inches wide before tapping the opener in the 13th on the rebound of Viktor Gyökeres’ effort against the post.

But Arsenal failed to add to their tally, were lucky that an Olympiakos equalizer from Chiquinho was nullified for offside. Martin Odegaard missed twice before Saka finally wrapped up matters at the death.

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“We want to win every single game of the season if possible and we want to win every trophy that we can,” Martinelli said.

Woltemade strikes again

Newcastle took the lead in the 17th minute when a volley from Sandro Tonali took a decisive flick off team-mate Woltemade’s heel which beat goalkeeper Kjell Scherpen who was diving the other way.

It was the third Newcastle goal overall for the Germany striker, who had arrived in summer for an estimated €80 million ($93 million) from VfB Stuttgart, and a first in the elite event in his maiden start.

Gordon converted a 43rd-minute penalty into the bottom left corner for 2-0 after Anthony Elanga was brought down by Fedde Leysen. Fedde then handled the ball in a duel with Woltemade, and Gordon made no mistake from the spot again when he chose the same corner in the 64th.

Harvey Barnes came on in the 73rd and wrapped up Newcastle’s biggest win in the competition eight minutes later on the counter as coach Eddie Howe spoke of “a mental boost for us.”