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Chelsea may have gone on a spending spree last transfer window but a shock defeat has delivered Thomas Tuchel’s side a brutal reality check.
Meanwhile, Erling Haaland just can’t stop scoring goals while Kylian Mbappe got off to a flying start for Paris Saint-Germain.
Read on for a full wrap of Wednesday’s UEFA Champions League action!
CHELSEA DEALT STUNNING REALITY CHECK
Thomas Tuchel admitted Chelsea are “missing everything” after Dinamo Zagreb ruined Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s debut with a shock 1-0 victory in the Champions League.
Tuchel’s side were expected to cruise through Group E after being drawn with Dinamo, Red Bull Salzburg and AC Milan.
But Chelsea’s task might not be so simple after Mislav Orsic’s first-half strike punished the Blues for another sloppy display in their group opener in Zagreb.
Having spent £250 million ($A427 million) on new signings since the end of last season, Tuchel is under pressure to deliver silverware in return for that huge investment.
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But Chelsea’s spending spree has yet to pay dividends, with no eye-catching performances in the Premier League and now three successive away defeats in all competitions.
“It’s an underperformance from us. We have the same story as always. We have an OK start, but don’t finish our half chances,” Tuchel said.
“We don’t feel it when the game is already there to put to bed in the first 20 minutes. Then we concede one counter-attack, which is far too easy, and from there we struggled.”
It was a debut to forget for Aubameyang, who joined Chelsea in a £10.3 million ($A17.6m) deadline-day deal from Barcelona just months after the acrimonious end to his time at Arsenal.
The 33-year-old had played for just eight minutes this season and only trained with Chelsea for the first time on Sunday.
Aubameyang recently suffered a fractured jaw during a violent robbery at his home, forcing the Gabonese striker to fly to Italy to have a custom-made protective mask fitted last weekend.
Whether it was the mask or his unfamiliarity with his new team-mates, Aubameyang looked uncomfortable as he struggled to escape the Croatian champions’ stifling defence.
“I will not talk about individuals today. We play as a team, we lose as a team,” Tuchel said of Aubameyang.
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“Too much to analyse. I’m a part of it. We are clearly not there, where we need to be and where we can be. So it’s on me, it’s on us, we need to find solutions. At the moment, everything is missing.” The first ominous sign came when he didn’t attack the near post as Kai Havertz whipped in a tempting low cross.
Moments later, Aubameyang ran clean through on goal, but took too long to decide whether to shoot or pass to Raheem Sterling, allowing Zagreb to avert the danger.
Chelsea monopolised possession in the early stages, but they were caught cold by a ruthless Dinamo counter in the 13th minute.
Despite spending a combined £100 million ($A171m) on Wesley Fofana and Kalidou Koulibaly, who both started in Chelsea’s defence, Tuchel’s men have had a soft centre so far this term and Orsic exploited that weakness.
When Bruno Petkovic headed Robert Ljubicic’s pass into Orsic’s path, Fofana was left trailing in the Croatian’s wake as he raced half the length of the pitch to flick a composed finish past Kepa Arrizabalaga.
Tuchel had dropped Edouard Mendy after his shaky start to the season, with Kepa replacing the Senegal keeper, who is also dealing with a patella tendon injury.
Dinamo were pressing tirelessly, giving wing-backs Reece James and Ben Chilwell little space to make the buccaneering runs that usually provide such quality service to Chelsea’s forwards.
Aubameyang tapped in Chilwell’s pass immediately after the interval, only for the goal to be disallowed as the defender had strayed offside to reach Mateo Kovacic’s pass.
Dinamo were unfazed by that escape and almost doubled their lead when Stefan Ristovski’s 25-yard rocket was tipped onto the bar by Kepa’s brilliant save.
Aubameyang’s underwhelming debut lasted an hour before he was replaced by Armando Broja.
Chelsea grew increasingly desperate as the match wore and their luck was out in the closing stages.
James hit the post with a ferocious drive before Mason Mount’s close-range effort was repelled by Dominik Livakovic as Dinamo won for only the sixth time in 43 matches in the competition.
MAN CITY GOALSCORING FREAK HAALAND DOES IT AGAIN
Erling Haaland maintained his incredible start to life at Manchester City as the Norway striker’s double inspired a 4-0 rout of Sevilla in Wednesday’s Champions League opener.
Haaland’s latest display of his sublime predatory instincts ensured City started their Group G campaign in emphatic fashion at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium.
The 22-year-old put City ahead in the first half and he netted again after the interval as Phil Foden and Ruben Dias also scored.
Guardiola this week insisted City cannot pin all their Champions League hopes on Haaland.
But he has made an incredible start to his City career following his £51 million ($A87 million) move from Borussia Dortmund, scoring 12 goals in just seven games in all competitions.
Haaland has scored 25 times in 20 Champions League games, a tally that now includes goals on his debuts in the competition for City, Dortmund and Red Bull Salzburg.
City’s stroll in southern Spain was just what the Premier League champions needed after the frustration of Saturday’s draw at Aston Villa.
Pitted in a group also featuring Dortmund and FC Copenhagen, City will expect to qualify comfortably if Haaland continues this kind of form.
But only winning the Champions League for the first time will make City’s season a complete success after so many years of painful failure in the competition.
There was a touch of irony about City returning to Spain to start this year’s Champions League run after last season’s campaign ended in Guardiola’s homeland.
City suffered an agonising semi-final defeat against Real Madrid, who scored twice in stoppage time to spark an extra-time victory that left Guardiola still waiting for his first European triumph since 2011 with Barcelona.
Strong winds on their flight contributed to a delayed arrival on Monday night, but City were never in danger of being blown off course in Sevilla.
With John Stones and Kyle Walker injured, Manuel Akanji made a composed debut in City’s defence after his deadline-day move from Dortmund, while Sergio Gomez was also solid at left-back in his first start.
Sending an early statement of intent, Haaland glanced a header just wide from Kevin De Bruyne’s cross.
City’s pressure was rewarded in the 20th minute as Haaland maintained his blistering form.
Foden slipped a pass to De Bruyne on the right flank and the Belgian’s cross was perfectly placed for Haaland, who showed tremendous movement and anticipation to volley home from close range.
Haaland is the fourth player to score on his Champions League debut for at least three different clubs after Fernando Morientes, Javier Saviola and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
City had squandered the lead after Haaland put them ahead at Villa and they looked determined to avoid a repeat.
De Bruyne went close with a free-kick that whistled wide, while Haaland motored into the area for a shot well saved by Yassine Bounou.
Penned back in their own half for long periods, Sevilla suddenly mounted a rare attack that almost brought an equaliser.
Thomas Delaney laid off to Papu Gomez and the forward should have done better than fire high into the stands.
Foden made Gomez pay for that miss as the City forward struck in the 58th minute.
Cancelo picked out Foden in the Sevilla area and he twisted and turned before planting a clever shot past the wrong-footed Bounou from 12 yards.
Haaland delivered the knockout blow in the 67th minute with a simple close-range finish after Bounou pushed Foden’s shot into his path.
With just seconds left in stoppage time, Dias capped the demolition as the defender converted Cancelo’s cross.
LETHAL MBAPPE GETS PSG OFF TO FLYING START
Kylian Mbappe produced two lethal first-half finishes as Paris Saint-Germain got their latest bid for Champions League success off to a winning start by beating Juventus 2-1 at the Parc des Princes.
Mbappe’s two goals were stunning, the first coming after an outrageous scooped assist by Neymar inside five minutes and the second at the end of a superb move midway through the first half.
PSG were cruising at half-time before being given a wake-up call early in the second half as substitute Weston McKennie headed Juventus back into the game.
Yet Juve are a faded force compared to just a few years ago and came to the French capital without several key players, including former PSG star Angel di Maria.
They could not find an equaliser and the Parisians claimed their first three points in Group H, leaving them level with Benfica, who beat Maccabi Haifa 2-0.
Mbappe, along with his coach Christophe Galtier, had come in for stiff criticism in France in the 24 hours leading up to this game for laughing when a question was put to him in the pre-match press conference about his club’s decision to travel for last weekend’s league visit to Nantes by private jet rather than take a more environmentally-friendly train.
The World Cup winner’s performance here suggested none of the negative headlines had remotely bothered him, as Mbappe confirmed exactly why PSG were so desperate to keep him at the end of last season when he seemed set to depart for Real Madrid.
Mbappe signed a new deal in Paris to 2025 with the aim of leading his hometown team to a first Champions League title after a decade of disappointing defeats and occasional humiliations at the business end of the competition.
He needed just five minutes to open the scoring on a balmy evening at the Parc des Princes after linking up brilliantly with Neymar, one of his rivals for the limelight in PSG’s squad of superstars.
Mbappe, coming in from the left, supplied Neymar before continuing into the box to meet the Brazilian’s delightful return pass with a volley across goalkeeper Mattia Perin and into the far corner.
Juve, with two ex-PSG players in their side in Leandro Paredes and Adrien Rabiot, actually very nearly equalised in the 19th minute when Arkadiusz Milik’s header from a Juan Cuadrado cross was parried out by Gianluigi Donnarumma.
It was 2-0 just three minutes later, as Mbappe played an electrifying exchange with Achraf Hakimi this time before sending another first-time strike past Perin.
With Marco Verratti and summer signing Vitinha constantly robbing balls in midfield, Lionel Messi slipping in between the Juve defence and midfield to play intelligent passes, and Mbappe seeking to deploy his electrifying pace, PSG were cruising.
But Juve coach Massimiliano Allegri sent on McKennie for the ineffective Fabio Miretti at half-time, and the United States international reduced the deficit in the 53rd minute.
Paredes played a short corner on the left to Filip Kostic, and his cross was headed home by McKennie with Donnarumma caught in no-man’s land.
Mbappe had squandered a great chance to make it 3-0 moments before that when he chose to shoot into the side-netting rather than pick out Neymar at the back post.
The home side then had Donnarumma to thank for a fine save to keep out a Dusan Vlahovic header, although in truth a bigger margin of victory for PSG would not have been undeserved, with Perin keeping out a late Neymar volley.
Mbappe now has nine goals in six games for his club this season, and has scored eight in his last seven Champions League appearances.
If he keeps playing like he is just now then this could well be PSG’s year at long last.
ANGE’S CELTIC LEARN KEY LESSON IN REAL DEFEAT
Real Madrid shrugged off the loss of Karim Benzema to an early injury as the holders got their defence of the Champions League off to a winning start with a 3-0 victory at Celtic.
The Scottish champions were left to rue not making the most of a bright start as Callum McGregor rattled the post.
However, the Hoops had no response once Vinicius Junior, scorer of the winner in last season’s final, broke the deadlock with a calm finish on 56 minutes.
Four minutes later a nonchalant finish from Luka Modric with the outside of his foot doubled Madrid’s lead before Eden Hazard struck to continue a 100 percent start to the season for Carlo Ancelotti’s men.
Celtic had begun the night with a perfect record this season, including a 4-0 demolition of local rivals and Europa League finalists Rangers on Saturday.
But in their first Champions League group match for five years, Ange Postecoglou’s men were given a harsh lesson of the need to take their chances in the step up to the highest level in European football.
The return of the Champions League anthem was met by a guttural roar of 60,000 packed into Parkhead and the home fans nearly had a goal to celebrate inside the first minute when Liel Abada’s strike was deflected just wide.
Postecoglou promised to stay true to his attacking philosophy against the European champions and stayed true to his word.
Abada should have done better when he shot tamely into the arms of Thibaut Courtois and McGregor’s fierce effort came crashing back off the post as the hosts had the better of the opening 20 minutes.
Ancelotti started with 10 of the 11 that began last season’s Champions League final success over Liverpool with 80-million-euro ($84 million) signing Aurelien Tchouameni replacing the departed Casemiro.
But Los Blancos were forced into a change after half an hour when Benzema hobbled off with a knee injury to be replaced by Hazard.
Madrid’s superior quality still slowly began to show with Modric and Toni Kroos taking control of midfield as the ferocity of Celtic’s pressing slowed.
Only a fine save from Joe Hart prevented Vinicius opening the scoring before the break after the Brazilian broke the offside trap to gallop clear in behind the Celtic defence.
Celtic had one more big chance to strike first blood when half-time substitute Daizen Maeda turned Josip Juranovic’s cross weakly into the arms of Courtois.
Postecoglou wheeled away in frustration with the sense his side could ill afford to waste such opportunities and so it proved.
Vinicius was deadly when given a second chance up against Hart as he steered Federico Valverde’s cross into the bottom corner.
Celtic were barely able to catch their breath before conceding again as Modric wriggled free inside the area and had just too much on his finish to beat Hart’s right hand.
Hazard then grabbed his first goal since January to round off the scoring and a brilliant team move as the Belgian tapped home Dani Carvajal’s pinpoint cross.
UKRAINE’S SHAKHTAR POWER TO MEMORABLE WIN
Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk romped to a memorable 4-1 Champions League win over RB Leipzig in Germany.
Shakhtar, who have not played in their home town since 2014, did not have any competitive matches this year until August 23 due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
They have lost multiple key players since as FIFA allowed foreign players and coaches to suspend their contracts and leave the club.
Shakhtar hold their home league games in capital Kyiv and will play their Champions League home matches in the Polish capital of Warsaw, because of a UEFA ban on playing in the war-torn nation.
The visitors took the lead against the run of play in the 16th minute thanks to a howler from Leipzig goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi, whose scuffed kick fell straight into the path of Marian Shved.
Leipzig continued to dominate possession and territory as the game went on, equalising through a powerful strike from French defender Mohamed Simakan 10 minutes into the second half.
Shakhtar were undaunted however, and hit back again through Shved, who marked his full debut with a double, just one minute later to reclaim the lead.
They put the result beyond doubt with another counter-attacking goal from winger Mykhaylo Mudryk in the 76th minute.
Mudryk, rumoured to be a target for Bayer Leverkusen and Arsenal before the summer transfer window closed, guided a shot beyond Gulacsi.
Burkinabe forward Lassina Traore, one of only three non-Ukrainian players in Shakhtar’s 23-man matchday squad, scored his side’s fourth with five minutes to play after coming on as a substitute.
Shakhtar were well supported in Leipzig, with Ukrainian flags seen around the stadium.
Considered contenders to dethrone Bayern Munich at the top of the Bundesliga this season, particularly after their German Cup win, Leipzig have just five points after five domestic matches.
Leipzig will be desperate for a change of fortunes when they host Borussia Dortmund on Saturday.
German media reports indicate Leipzig-born former Dortmund coach Marco Rose, who previously won two Austrian titles with sister club Red Bull Salzburg, has been lined up to replace Domenico Tedesco if the coach fails to stop the slide.
‘GOOSEBUMPS’: TOUCHING MOMENT CAPS OFF BIG DORTMUND VICTORY
Borussia Dortmund continued their impressive start to the season as Jude Bellingham scored in a comfortable 3-0 Champions League home win over FC Copenhagen.
With striker Sebastien Haller, who is currently undergoing treatment for testicular cancer, watching on in the stands, Dortmund were composed and dominant throughout despite fielding four Champions League debutants in the starting XI.
Dortmund captain Marco Reus said the crowd’s jubilant reaction to Haller’s presence in the stadium “gave him goosebumps”.
Reus was proud of his side’s effort against a team returning to the Champions League for the first time in six years, but knew they must improve to challenge Europe’s heavyweights.
“First things first, I’m happy that we won this ‘must-win’ game,” Reus told broadcaster Amazon Prime.
“But I know that we must improve against Manchester City next week, because there will be a different quality on the pitch.
“We didn’t allow much. There would have been a bit more in it, but I don’t want to be too critical. A win like this to start with feels good.”
After a furious opening half dominated by the home side, Marco Reus dribbled past two Copenhagen defenders before hammering the ball past Australian goalkeeper Mathew Ryan on 35 minutes.
Just seven minutes later, American forward Giovanni Reyna — who was subbed on for the injured Thorgan Hazard in the 23rd minute — set Raphael Guerreiro up for an easy tap-in to double his side’s lead.
Dortmund, who have won four from five in the Bundesliga this season, were roared on by their famous yellow wall, which was allowed to feature standing fans for the first time since 1998 under new UEFA regulations.
One minute into the second half, Copenhagen’s Lukas Lerager had a chance to pull one back for his side but was denied by a superb reflex save by ‘keeper Alex Meyer, making his Dortmund and Champions League debut.
“This was a day I will never forget,” Meyer, who was plying his trade in the German second division last season, told German media after the game.
As the game wore on, Dortmund continued their dominance and went close several times through the creative Julian Brandt, before Bellingham converted another assist from Reyna in the 83rd minute.
Copenhagen looked to have scored a late consolation goal through Rasmus Falk, but it was chalked off for offside.
Dortmund coach Edin Terzic praised his side’s composure and dominance. “I think we did an excellent job,” Terzic said. “That’s a great start to our Champions League season.” The game was the fourth time in seven matches this term that Dortmund have kept a clean sheet.
Despite the win, Dortmund lost Hazard early and now have nine first-team players out injured just six weeks into the campaign.
Terzic lamented his side’s bad injury luck after the game, telling reporters it was “brutally frustrating”.
“It’s not like we’re not trying everything to change things – but we’ll keep working on it.” Copenhagen continue their Champions League campaign next week at home to Sevilla, while Dortmund head away to take on former striker Erling Haaland’s Man City.
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