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A Record-Breaking Champions League Goal Fest 📈

Plus, a must-see goalkeeper assist.

Author

Tommy Stewart
October 22, 2025

Hail GFOP!

Never had the Champions League seen such a decadent goal fest before last night’s record-breaking 43 across nine games. The previous peak was 40, which was hit last November, but a quick scan of Tuesday’s wild scorelines reminds us all why we love football so much. That sensation, however, may have been met with a loud “WHAT THE REDACTED!?” when you realized that ‘PSV Eindhoven 6-2 Napoli’ and ‘Bayer Leverkusen 2-7 PSG’ didn’t occur in a game of FC25, or some kind of fever dream, but were instead things that actually happened. 🫨

ii. A less surprising but equally bountiful result was Barcelona’s 6-1 demolition of Greek titans Olympiakos, where Marcus Rashford had a near-perfect match. The former Manchester United forward scored two and won a penalty while playing as a No. 9 yesterday, putting him on top of the Champions League goal contributions list this season with five and sending the Spanish media into hyperbolic rapture. ❤️

iii. The appointment viewing continues today as 15-time champions Real Madrid welcome two-time winners Juventus to the Bernabéu. Los Blancos have won 12 of their last 13 at this preliminary stage of the tournament, while the Old Lady have only won one of their last 11 on the continental roads of this competition. Elsewhere, Chelsea host Ajax while Spurs travel to Monaco, but all eyes are on Frankfurt, where Arne Slot will attempt to exorcise his side’s four-match losing streak; at this point, it feels even a draw would suffice. 🏆

iv. One other highlight from yesterday’s scoring barrage: The USMNT’s Ricardo Pepi knocked home his fourth career Champions League goal, along with an assist, in his second-placed Dutch club PSV Eindhoven’s 6-2 throttling of Italy’s reigning champs, Napoli. While Pepi’s been absent from the Gen-Zeagles since injuring his knee last year, the 22-year-old El Paso native has scored three times in all comps so far this season. Let’s hope he catches Poch’s eye again soon. 🇺🇸

v. If yesterday’s result left you wondering if Arsenal have finally figured themselves out, let Rog and Rory walk you through the Gunners’ ugly, but pivotal win from over the weekend. You can watch that here. Or if you’d rather hear from the well-coifed manager himself, here’s Rog’s most recent chat with Mikel Arteta. 📺

PS - Set Piece FC, meet the Flat Cap Ultras.

Cheers,
Tommy Stewart

Arsenal Run Riot Through Atlético Madrid 🏆

Arsenal 4-0 Atlético Madrid 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🇪🇸

With the score at 0-0, it was a true sliding doors moment when Julián Alvarez missed David Raya’s empty net in the first half at the Emirates yesterday. He was ruthlessly punished by Mikel Arteta’s side following the break, who eventually got on the board with a now formulaic Gabriel header from a Declan Rice set piece, Arsenal’s sixth of the season. After bursting on to the scene last year, Myles Lewis-Skelly has been kept at bay of late, but his 40-yard run that sliced through Atleti’s spine to assist Gabriel Martinelli felt like a statement play and massive release. Diego Simeone appeared uncharacteristically sad as cameras focused in on him after a scrappy Viktor Gyökeres brace that ended the Swede’s nine-match goalless streak, while Arteta looks and sounds like the winner he’s always been so close to manifesting into, finally combining these drubbings of European heavyweights with scrappy Premier League 0-1 away wins.

Villarreal 0-2 Manchester City 🇪🇸 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Just under half of Villarreal’s 52,000 population squeezed into their Estadi de la Ceràmica, where the two-time semi-finalists became the latest victims of Erling Haaland’s singular stampede through England and Europe’s defenses. He had it put on a plate in the 17th minute by Rico Lewis, followed by Savinho setting up a checks notes Bernardo Silva header to pretty much kill the game in the first half, with the Brazilian winger having arguably his best game in a City shirt. Both sides’ goalkeepers, Villarreal’s Luiz Júnior and the indomitable Gianluigi Donnarumma, impressed while preventing the score from becoming as silly as things got almost everywhere else yesterday. This was City’s first European away win in a year, putting them fifth in the league table and continuing this season’s undefeated run in the competition.

Newcastle 3-0 Benfica 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🇵🇹

St. James’ Park is always loud and feels particularly emboldened by Champions League football, but Benfica’s Dodi Lukébakio was determined to silence the crowd last night, with only Nick Pope’s post and forearm keeping the Benfica forward out twice in the first 20 minutes. Anthony Gordon got the party started by carving open the Portuguese side’s defense in the first half, leaving José Mourinho rueful of his team’s missed chances. That was Temu Princess Diana’s third goal in three Champions League matches, further cementing his likely spot in the England squad, somewhere Harvey Barnes would also love to be. Fittingly, he scored a late brace with the first coming from a huge pinpoint Pope throw that Patrick Mahomes would be proud of (seriously, watch this absolute dime). At seventh, Eddie Howe’s side are somehow higher in the UCL table than they are in the Premier League, recovering from their opening-day defeat to Barca to win their last two.

Elsewhere in the Champions League:

Barcelona 6-1 Olympiacos, PSV 6-2 Napoli, Bayer Leverkusen 2-7 PSG, Union SG 0-4 Inter, Copenhagen 2-4 Borussia Dortmund, Kairat Almaty 0-0 Pafos

A Few Great Goals from Yesterday’s Action 🚀

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The CL’s Coldest Team: Say Hallo to Bodø/Glimt 🇳🇴

Norway’s FK Bodø/Glimt are a very modern footballing fairytale as it wasn’t until 2020 that they’d won a league title. They’re now their country’s dominant side, adding three more since then, with Erling Haaland their only competition as Norway’s footballing pride and joy. You might remember them from last season’s Europa League run, where Kjetil Knutsen’s squad got further than any Norwegian team has before, only narrowly losing to Spurs in the semi-final.

Bodø are the Northernmost team in the Champions League. Their Aspmyra Stadion is 200km above the arctic circle, meaning it’s very, very cold there, so cold that they have to play on that fabled plastic pitch, something most commentators love to remind us of. But most of all, they’re a product of their manager. Knutsen put faith in young players and an emphasis on outrunning opponents when he took over as the Nordland side in 2018, who up to that point had only ever won two major trophies. His appointment has been transformative for not just the club, but Bodø itself, which will be reflected in their new 10,000-capacity, $120-million stadium, set to open in 2027/28.

Today’s Matches Worth Faking a Meeting for 📺

Eintracht Frankfurt vs. Liverpool (TODAY, 3 p.m. ET, Paramount+) 🇩🇪 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Hugo Ekitike has been the only one of Arne Slot’s expensive new toys to make playtime fun, so surely the French forward would relish the opportunity to thrive against his former club. Although Dino Toppmöller’s Frankfurt side are only seventh in the Bundesliga, the 59,000-seat Deutsche Bank Park will be invigorated by welcoming the Premier League champions on a decade-low run of bad form. Off the back of a home defeat to United, Toppmöller knows there’s no better time to face Liverpool, whose summer spending spree has left them in an unexpected identity crisis. This is Slot’s most critical week yet in his Liverpool tenure, and with both Mo Salah and Alexander Isak anonymous and goalless of late, each of their places in the squad could miraculously be up for grabs.

Real Madrid vs. Juventus (TODAY, 3 p.m. ET, Paramount+) 🇪🇸 🇮🇹

Xabi Alonso’s team are top of La Liga, second in the Champions League league table and yet it somehow feels like they’re yet to evolve into the fully formed version of what this planetarium of footballers could become under the club legend. He’ll have one eye on this weekend’s colossal El Clásico, so amidst a recent injury crisis, the return of veteran right-back Dani Carvajal is huge. Igor Tudor’s also an icon, but since his summer appointment, Juventus have been exciting but inconsistent. They’re seventh in Serie A and have drawn their two UCL matches so far, but the weekend’s loss to Como off the back of five consecutive draws has invited unwelcome pressure from the Juve faithful.

Chelsea vs. Ajax (TODAY, 3 p.m. ET, Paramount+) 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🇳🇱

While anyone could have been the side to put Big Ange to the sword at Nottingham Forest, Chelsea’s 3-0 win on Saturday was impressive. With an injury-ravaged squad, Enzo Maresca has managed to keep his ship afloat, utilizing youth in Josh Acheampong, rotating key players like Moisés Caicedo, and implementing consistency in the selection of fundamentals like Reece James and Pedro Neto, both of whom scored at the weekend. Chelsea have only lost two of their last 12 home matches in this competition, which doesn’t bode well for John Heitinga’s Ajax, who are slumped at fourth in the Eredivisie, possibly still aching from handing the title to rivals PSV on the final day of last season.

Monaco vs. Tottenham (TODAY, 3 p.m. ET, Paramount+) 🇫🇷 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Thomas Frank has the opportunity to become the first Tottenham manager to go unbeaten in his first three Champions League matches if his side can win at Monaco today (you’ll never sing that), but the Stade Louis II is not a tourist destination English teams usually recommend. Monaco have only lost one of their last eight home games against English opposition in their intimate 18,000-capacity stadium that looks a bit like a George Lucas fever dream. After a strong start to the season under Frank, a 1-0 lead became a 2-1 loss at the weekend, perhaps triggering Post-Traumatic Spursy Disorder amongst some supporters, but they’ll be buoyed by the fact their French opponents are seventh in Ligue 1 and winless in three.

You can find the full list of today’s UCL fixtures here.

News & Notes from Around Football 🗞️

Who Played There? 🤔

OK, this is the third edition of this game so we’re going to make it a bit trickier because loads of you got the last two correct: Who is the missing player in Manchester United’s lineup when they played PSG in the Champions League round of 16 on 02/12/2019?

Email us (or reply to this newsletter) with your answer for a chance to win a much-coveted MiB patch!

Congratulations to our most-recent winner Adam Warner, who was the first to correctly identify that Jorginho was the missing player in Chelsea’s 2021 Champions League Final XI that beat Manchester City in Porto. The patch is in the post, Adam! 📬

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