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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Josh O'Brien

Champions League round-up: Robert Lewandowski bags a hat-trick while Leroy Sane shines

It was match-day one in the Champions League for a number of European football's biggest sides, with the likes of Premier League duo Liverpool and Tottenham both in action as well as Spanish giants Barcelona.

Jurgen Klopp's men made the trip to Naples to face off with Serie A side Napoli and struggled to shake off some of the rust that has blighted the first part of their campaign. The Reds conceded two penalties inside the opening 16 minutes of the game - though only one was converted.

What followed was frankly quite remarkable as Napoli ran out 4-1 winners.

Spurs welcomed a Marseille side that contained three former or current Arsenal stars in Gunners loanee Nuno Tavares and ex-Emirates talents Matteo Guendouzi and Sead Kolisinac.

Richarlison netted a brace for Antonio Conte's side to get Spurs' campaign on the continent off to the best possible start with a 2-0 win.

Here's the pick of the games that did not boast any Premier League action.

Ajax 4-0 Rangers

Ajax put Rangers to the sword in Amsterdam ((Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images))

The Scottish side were handed an absolute drubbing upon their return to club football's most prestigious competition by an Ajax side that were at their emphatic best.

Showing very little sign of a post-Antony hangover, the Eredivisie champions ran riot and were three goals to the good inside the opening 33 minutes of the game.

Chelsea target Edson Alvarez opened the scoring, before two goals in two minutes from Steven Berghuis and Mohammed Kudus effectively ended the tie as a contest against a helpless Rangers.

Former Spurs star Steven Bergwijn added a fourth with ten minutes to go to seal a stellar first showing from Ajax and ensure a miserable start to this season's Champions League campaign.

Barcelona 5-1 Viktoria Plzen

Robert Lewandowski was at his lethal best for Barcelona ((Photo by Alex Caparros/Getty Images))

The Catalan titans welcomed the Czech outfit to the Camp Nou and quickly made clear Plzen would be in for a rough ride after Frenck Kessie opened the scoring for the hosts on the 13th minute.

Half an hour passed before Barcelona doublted their advantage, with Robert Lewandowski bagging his first Champions League goal for the Blaugrana with a delightfully-curled right-footed finish from the edge of the area.

However, Plzen sprung a shock just before the interval when Jan Sykora pulled one back for the visitors to stun the Barcelona faithful.

Unfortunately, it didn't have the same impact on the actual Barcelona players, as Lewandowski added his second and his side's third before the referee had even blown for half-time.

The 67th minute saw the Poland international secure his hat-trick to silence anyone foolish enough to question whether he could carry his Bayern form over to Barcelona.

Ferran Torres netted a fifth four minutes later.

Inter Milan 0-2 Bayern Munich

Leroy Sane bagged Bayern's opener ((Photo by Francesco Scaccianoce/Getty Images))

Two titans of the game met at one of the most iconic stadiums on the planet as Inter welcomed Bayern to the San Siro.

Julian Nagelsmann's side scored the game's first goal as Leroy Sane showcased the kind of skill English fans saw so many times while he was a Manchester City player.

Latching on to a lofted Joshua Kimmich pass, Sane chested the ball down before rounding the onrushing Andre Onana to calmly slot his effort into the empty net.

While the second goal will technically go down as a Danilo D'Ambrosio own goal, it was Sane who forced the Italian defender into the error with his quick thinking inside the Inter penalty area.

Eintracht Frankfurt 0-3 Sporting CP

Sporting beat Frnakfurt with ease ((Photo by Fantasista/Getty Images))

The Portuguese side registered their joint-biggest win in Champions League history against the Bundesliga outfit.

Frankfurt were left kicking themselves after wasting a number of glorious first-half opportunities which eventually came back to haunt them with Sporting's second-half display.

Marcus Edwards bagged the visitors first of the game, before providing the second which was calmly dispatched by Francisco Trincao two minutes after the opener.

Nuno Santos notched a third late on to compound Frankfurt's misery.

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