The UEFA Champions League returned with a bang as matchweek 1 of the 2026-27 season provided plenty of stunning goals and results.
Paris Saint-Germain rocketed to the top of the league phase table with a 6-1 win over Slovan Bratislava. Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Manchester United joined them at the top with big wins of their own. Last season's beaten finalists Arsenal squeezed out a 1-0 win over Napoli, while Liverpool eked out a 2-1 win over Atletico Madrid.
Real Madrid were unconvincing in a 2-1 win over Internazionale, while Manchester City picked up a 2-0 win away to FC Porto, as the big guns in the tournament started off with victories.
By The Numbers brings you the best stats from MD1 of the 2026-27 UCL league phase:
71
Kylian Mbappé tied Raúl (71) as the fifth highest scorer in UEFA Champions League history. (Cristiano Ronaldo 140, Lionel Messi 129, Robert Lewandowski 109, Karim Benzema 90).
9
Vinícius Júnior made nine recoveries against Inter Milan - the most he's made in a single UCL game in his career. The nine recoveries were also the most for a Real Madrid forward in a home UCL game since Gonzalo Higuaín in December 2008 (12).
100
Thibaut Courtois became the 56th footballer to make 100 UEFA Champions League appearances.
1 and 0
Ethan Mbappé earned the first red card of his career in all competitions in Lille's loss to Real Betis. This was just his third UCL appearance. His brother, Kylian Mbappé has 0 red cards in 99 UCL games.
904
Bayern Munich became only the second team after Real Madrid (1139) to score 900 or more goals in the UEFA Champions League. Barcelona are third in the all-time standings with 767 goals, while Manchester United are fourth, with 549.
34
Michael Olise has 34 goal contributions in 2026 in all competitions (17 goals, 17 assists). Only his teammate Harry Kane (39: 34 goals, 5 assists) has more goal contributions in the calendar year among players from Europe's Top 5 Leagues.
4
This was Olise's fourth career UCL game with 3+ goals contributions, tied with Barcelona's Raphinha for the most since OIise debuted in the competition in September 2024.
8
Harry Kane has now scored in eight consecutive UCL games (10 goals). He is one short of tying the longest streak by a Bayern Munich player in UCL history (Robert Lewandowski had two streaks of 9 games scoring between 2019 and 2021). Cristiano Ronaldo has the longest scoring streak in UCL history with 11 games between 2017 and 2018.
31
Kane leads the UCL with 31 goal contributions (26 goals, 5 assists) in the last three seasons (since 2024-25), three more than any other player in that span (Ousmane Dembélé and Raphinha with 28 each).
59
Erling Haaland now has 59 goals in 59 UCL games - the highest goals per game ratio of any player in the tournament's history (minimum 20 games).
36
Haaland joined Sergio Aguero as the all-time leading goalscorer for Manchester City in the UEFA Champions League with his 36th UCL goal for the club.
22
Barcelona have scored 22 goals from five games this season - the club's fourth-highest scoring start to a season, and their best since 1950-51.
101
Lamine Yamal broke Lionel Messi's record for Barcelona, becoming the youngest player in club history to reach 100 goal contributions at the age of 19y 58d (Messi was 22). Yamal has 101 goal contributions for the club (54 goals, 47 assists).
12 and 22
Yamal has now scored 12 goals in the Champions League, one short of Kylian Mbappe's record (13) for the most goals by a teenager in the competition. However, Yamal did break the Frenchman's record (20) for the most goal contributions by a teenager in the UCL (22).
5/5
Raphinha became the first Barcelona player in the 21st century to score in all of the club's first five games of the season.
44
Bruno Fernandes has 23 goals and 21 assists in European competitions since his Manchester United debut in 2020, no other midfielder has more goals and assist than the Portuguese star in that period.
1
Sabah became the first team in UEFA Champions League history to name a starting XI with 11 players of different nationalities in their first ever game in the competition.
4 and 241
Matheus Cunha became the fourth Brazilian to score in the UEFA Champions League for Manchester United, after Anderson, Alex Telles and Casemiro. With his first-ever UCL goal, he also became the 241st different Brazilian to score in the UCL - only France (242) have more goalscorers.
21y, 319d
Patrick Dorgu became the youngest player to assist on his first UEFA Champions League appearance for Man Utd (21 years, 319 days) since an 18-year-old Wayne Rooney in September 2004.
0/10
Arsenal have scored ten goals this season in five games. None of them have come from set-pieces.
54%
David Raya has kept a clean sheet in 54% of his starts in the UEFA Champions League (20/37), the highest percentage of any goalkeeper in the competition (minimum 25 starts).
4.05
Arsenal's 26 shots and 4.05 xG against Napoli were both the team's highest in a UEFA Champions League game since 2010-11.
4
Martin Odegaard has scored in four goals in five games in all competitions this season, after scoring one goal in 36 appearances for the club last season.
1
Andoni Iraola earned his first career win against Diego Simeone in all competitions (entered game 0-1-3 W-D-L vs Simeone).
5/5
Marcos Llorente has scored five goals in five games against Liverpool - the same amount of goals he's scored in 54 games against other opponents in the UCL.
11
PSG are on an 11-game unbeaten streak in the UCL, just two short of the club's all-time record, set between October 2012 to November 2013.
9
Ferran Torres became the ninth Spanish player with a hat trick in UEFA Champions League; he's the first Spanish player with 3+ goals in a UCL game for a non-LALIGA team since Lucas Pérez for Arsenal in Dec. 2016 against Basel.
21
Torres now has 21 goals in the competition, overtaking manager Luis Enrique (19), Fernando Torres (20) and Cesc Fabregas (20) to become the fifth-highest scoring Spaniard in UCL / European Cup history. Raul leads the way with 71 goals.
30
Ousmane Dembélé now has 30 UCL goals, overtaking David Trézéguet to become the fifth-highest-scoring Frenchman in UCL history. (Karim Benzema 90, Kylian Mbappe 71, Thierry Henry 50, Antoine Griezmann 44)
2745 and 1
Bryan Cristante scored the first goal of his UCL career (14 matches with AS Roma, Benfica and AC Milan). His goal was also Roma's first goal in the Champions League since Daniele de Rossi scored for the club in their Ro16 exit against Porto in the 2018/19 season - 2745 days ago.
2
Como are the second Serie A team to score 4+ goals in their European Cup/UEFA Champions League debut, joining 1991-92 Sampdoria (5-0 win against Rosenborg in Sep. 1991). Como also became the 12th Serie A team to score in the UCL (16 in total).
2
Nico Paz (22y 2d) became the youngest Argentinian player to assist 2+ goals in a UEFA Champions League game since Lionel Messi in October 2008 (21y 120d v Basel).
9
PSV's Ricardo Pepi has been involved in nine goals in the UEFA Champions League (6 goals, 3 assists). Pepi has the best minutes per goal or assist ratio of any player to feature in 250+ minutes in Champions League history (one every 49 mins).
5 and 2
Ermedin Demirovic scored the fifth-earliest hat trick in UEFA Champions League history (31:21). He also became only the second player from Bosnia and Herzegovina with a hat trick in a UCL game (Edin Džeko in 2018 vs Viktoria Plzen), as well as the first Stuttgart player to score a hat-trick in the Champions League.
1
Zion Suzuki became the first Japanese goalkeeper to appear in the UEFA Champions League - he was also the first to do so in the Premier League earlier this season.
12
John McGinn has 12 career goals for Aston Villa in UEFA competitions, passing Ollie Watkins as the club's all-time leading scorer in major European competitions.
