Goals

Aleksandar Mitrović's phenomenal start to the 2021-22 Championship season continued on Wednesday as he buried Swansea with a first-half hat trick. The hulking Serbian now has 10 goals in as many games this campaign, along with three assists, for third-placed Fulham. 

The 27-year-old has endured tough times recently, often finding himself on the bench last season as Fulham was relegated from the Premier League — this despite the fact that his 26 goals in 2019-20 propelled the West London side to the top flight in the first place. 

Last year it was Adam Armstrong who provided the main thrust in the Blackburn attack. This season, following Armstrong's departure to the Premier League with Southampton, Ben Brereton Díaz has picked up the mantle for Rovers. 

Brereton Díaz is the key reason why Armstrong has not been missed as yet. With nine goals in the season's first 10 games, the 22-year-old has fired Rovers into sixth place. He announced in July he would use his mother's surname in club games as well as international games for Chile, for whom the Stoke-born forward made his international bow on June 14. 

Zenit St. Petersburg sits in third place in Champions League Group H after Wednesday's 4-0 stomping of Swedish side Malmö, level on points with Chelsea. Zenit opened group play with a 1-0 defeat to the Blues, its first loss of the season, on Sep. 14. 

Sergei Semak's team coasted to victory in its second UCL outing of the season, already up 2-0 when Malmö's Anel Ahmedhodžić was sent off for a handball after 53 minutes.

The Federico Chiesa goal vs Chelsea came only 11 seconds into the second half. The sole goal in Juventus’ 1-0 group stage victory against Chelsea was missed by anyone who didn’t quite get back to their screens in time.

Chiesa Goal Vs Chelsea

FEDERICO CHIESA. 11 SECONDS INTO THE SECOND HALF. pic.twitter.com/W3KkSWJE37

Ronald Koeman, it’s time for your 45-second phone call.  

After an embarrassingly limp (zero shots on target) 3-0 defeat to Bayern Munich at the Camp Nou to begin Champions League play, Barcelona played even worse on Wednesday night during a 3-0 defeat to Benfica in Lisbon (one shot on target!).

It was billed as the most expensive football match in the world — the $1.10 billion squad value of PSG against the $1.16 billion of Manchester City. There was also the subplot of the most expensive transfer of the summer, City’s Jack Grealish at $135.5 million, versus PSG’s acquisitions of Lionel Messi, Georginio Wijnaldum, Gianluigi Donnarumma and Achraf Hakimi. All five started.