{"id":935737,"date":"2026-10-21T04:22:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T04:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/935737\/"},"modified":"2026-10-21T04:22:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T04:22:14","slug":"champions-league-2026-news-liverpool-vs-villarreal-highlights-florian-wirtz-goal-psg-vs-barcelona-result-lamine-yamal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/935737\/","title":{"rendered":"Champions League 2026 news: Liverpool vs Villarreal highlights; Florian Wirtz goal ; PSG vs Barcelona result, Lamine Yamal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Liverpool<\/a> look likelier to win the Champions League<\/a> than the Premier League<\/a> this season after maintaining their perfect record in Europe\u2019s premier competition on Wednesday (AEDT).<\/p>\n

The Reds came from 2-0 down to beat Villarreal 4-3<\/a> in a wildly fluctuating and entertaining clash at Anfield.<\/p>\n

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Liverpool\u2019s Florian Wirtz celebrates after scoring his side\u2019s fourth goal.\u00a0AP Photo\/Ian Hodgson<\/p>\n

It meant Liverpool kept pace at the top-of-the-table with two-time defending champions Paris Saint-Germain<\/a>, who have also won their opening three games.<\/p>\n

Liverpool is fifth in the Premier League, already nine points behind leaders Manchester City<\/a> after seven matches.<\/p>\n

Early goals to striker Georges Mikautadze and left back Sergi Cardona had Villarreal on track for a big road upset in the first half.<\/p>\n

Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk held up his hands in apology after his wayward header allowed Mikautadze to score the opener.<\/p>\n

But Alexis Mac Allister had other ideas, as the Liverpool midfielder scored a brace and Ronald Ara\u00fajo and Florian Wirtz also got on the scoresheet.<\/p>\n

Wirtz\u2019s 68th minute goal proved decisive given Tani Oluwaseyi gave the hosts a late scare with a 87th minute strike.<\/p>\n

Wirtz\u2019s teammates mobbed him in celebration after the composed left-foot finish.<\/p>\n

The goal may also – at least temporarily – silence some of the German\u2019s many critics, who had questioned his future at Liverpool before the match.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know how talented he is and what he is capable of, but I think he has lost all confidence and all belief in his abilities,\u201d Reds great Dietmar Hamann told Givemesport.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think he believes he can succeed in the Premier League. I see no future for Wirtz at Liverpool.\u201d<\/p>\n

The club paid Bayer Leverkusen $200 million for the playmaker in 2025.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Florian Wirtz of Liverpool scores his team\u2019s fourth goal.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

Wirtz\u2019s goal against Villarreal was his eighth in 59 games for Liverpool.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople really wanted him to succeed,\u201d Carragher told Hamann & Stankovic, calling him a \u201cgreat guy\u201d who \u201cdoesn\u2019t score goals\u201d before the Villarreal match.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe never looks like he could score a goal in a game,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Liverpool\u2019s 18-year-old whiz-kid Rio Ngumoha was also superb, providing assists for Ara\u00fajo and Mac Allister and winning player of the match.<\/p>\n

Reds great Robbie Fowler called for Ngumoha to start in Monday\u2019s (AEDT) massive Premier League clash with third-placed Brighton at Anfield.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely one of the best games I played. I enjoyed it. Whenever I get the ball and go one v one, the\u00a0more it makes the opposition worried,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ngumoha became the youngest Englishman to provide an assist in the Champions League.<\/p>\n

\u201cRecords are amazing to break. This stadium, we have the best fans. To\u00a0hear my name being chanted is a dream.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Parc des Princes, PSG beat Barcelona 4-2 in a glamour clash despite Lamine Yamal\u2019s superbly taken goal which had levelled the score at 2-2.<\/p>\n

Vitinha and Fabi\u00e1n Ruiz quickly stepped up with late goals to ensure another PSG victory.<\/p>\n

Football\u2019s\u00a0new home, Stan Sport<\/a>, is the only place to watch the Premier League, UEFA Champions League, FA Cup, WSL, J.League, NWSL and K League<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Liverpool look likelier to win the Champions League than the Premier League this season after maintaining their perfect…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":935738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-935737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=935737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/935738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=935737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=935737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=935737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}