Hot SourceFermin Lopez scored a hat-trick and Marcus Rashford took his personal tally to four goals from three Champions League games as Barcelona thrashed Olympiacos 6-1.
Two smart first-half finishes from Lopez put Barcelona in control, before his third, a Lamine Yamal penalty and a Rashford double halted a short-lived Olympiacos fightback.
After playing Yamal through on goal in the seventh minute, Lopez was on hand to finish past the defenders on the goal-line when goalkeeper Konstantinos Tzolakis made a block but could not keep hold of the ball.
The Spanish midfielder doubled Barcelona’s lead half an hour later when he ran on to Dro Fernandez’s ball into space, cut inside and curled a left-footed strike into the left corner.
The second half began in bizarre circumstances. Ayoub El Kaabi thought he had halved the deficit with a header, but after checking on the pitchside monitor, referee Urs Schnyder chalked off the goal for offside and instead awarded the visitors a penalty for a handball by Eric Garcia, which El Kaabi converted via the post.
Three minutes later Olympiacos midfielder Santiago Hezze was shown a second yellow card and ordered off for catching Lopez with a flailing arm.
This was a night when Yamal became the youngest player to reach 25 Champions League appearances – at 18 years and 100 days – and the teenager tucked away a penalty after Rashford was brought down while attempting to round Tzolakis.
RESULTS
Barcelona 6-1 Olympiacos
Kairat Almaty 0-0 Pafos
Arsenal 4-0 Atletico
Leverkusen 2-7 PSG
Copenhagen 2-4 Dortmund
Newcastle 3-0 Benfica
PSV 6-2 Napoli
Royale 0-4 Inter
Villarreal 0-2 Man City
WEDNESDAY
Bilbao v Qarabag
Galatasaray v Bodo
Atalanta v Sl’ Prague
B’Munich v Brugge
Chelsea v Ajax
Frankfurt v Liverpool
Monaco v Tottenham
R’Madrid v Juventus
Sporting v Marseille
