Bad start for Premier League pair
On a night when Europe’s biggest stars couldn’t find a way to score, teenager Erling Braut Haaland made it look easy.
The 19-year-old Norwegian shone on his Champions League debut, scoring a hat-trick as Salzburg beat Genk 6-2. Meanwhile, Liverpool, Barcelona and Chelsea all failed to score.
Haaland is emerging as one of Europe’s biggest talents after netting 17 goals in nine games for Salzburg this season.
He scored in the second minute against Genk and twice more before halftime, tormenting the Belgian side on the counterattack and making Salzburg look like anything but a team which last played in the Champions League in 1994.
English teams are off to a poor start this season.
Liverpool’s front three of Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane misfired as the European champion’s title defence started with a 2-0 loss to Napoli.
Liverpool denied Napoli a place in the Champions League knockout rounds last season and the Italian side got a measure of revenge yesterday. Dries Mertens’ penalty gave Napoli the lead before Fernando Llorente – who was on the Tottenham team that lost to Liverpool in last season’s final – made it 2-0 in stoppage time.
‘‘Overall, we can be better of course,’’ Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson said. ‘‘We’ll take responsibility. We’ll move forward and try and react in the right way.’’
Chelsea were beaten 1-0 by Valencia thanks to a volley from Rodrigo, with Ross Barkley missing a chance to equalise when he fired a penalty onto the crossbar. It was the first European test for the new-look Chelsea team under coach Frank Lampard.
Making things worse for Chelsea, midfielder Mason Mount went off with an ankle injury after a sliding tackle from Valencia’s Francis Coquelin.
Elsewhere , even Lionel Messi couldn’t lift Barcelona to a win over Borussia Dortmund. In his first appearance of the season following a calf injury, Messi came off the bench but couldn’t turn the tide in a 0-0 draw.
Instead, Barcelona’s standout player was goalkeeper MarcAndre ter Stegen, who saved a penalty from Marco Reus and made several other saves to keep the game scoreless.
After a summer of transfers and near-elimination in qualifying, Ajax looked assured on their return to the Champions League group stage.
Last season’s semifinalists are much changed after selling Frenkie de Jong and Matthijs de Ligt in the summer, but new signings Quincy Promes and Edson Alvarez scored as they beat Lille 3-0.
Leipzig, another club trying to break into Europe’s elite, also had a winning start as it beat Benfica 2-1 in Portugal.