Liverpool Rally From 2-0 Down; Foden Hat Trick Sinks AEK
Liverpool 4-3 Villarreal
The Spanish visitors silenced Anfield inside four minutes. Georges Mikautadze pounced on a misplaced header from Virgil van Dijk and beat Alisson Becker.
Villarreal doubled the lead in the 29th minute. A through ball from Nicolas Saliba exposed Liverpool’s back line, and Sergi Cardona slotted into the bottom-left corner.
The Reds began their recovery seven minutes later, when Alexis Mac Allister headed in a Kostas Tsimikas cross after a corner. Rio Ngumoha then delivered a far-post cross in first-half stoppage time, and Ronald Araujo headed in to level at 2-2.
Liverpool went ahead for the first time in the 65th minute. Ngumoha got the better of Cardona on the right and pulled the ball back for Mac Allister, whose first-time finish hit the crossbar before crossing the line.
Florian Wirtz stretched the lead three minutes later, converting a Cody Gakpo pass with a low shot through the legs of Renato Veiga.
Villarreal refused to fold. Tani Oluwaseyi reduced the deficit in the 87th minute, meeting an Ayoze Perez cross at the far post, but Liverpool held on.
Manchester City 5-1 AEK Athens
At the Etihad Stadium, City cruised to victory behind a Foden treble.
Elliot Anderson opened the scoring in the 12th minute, his first goal for the club, tapping into an empty net after an Enzo Fernandez free kick came back off the crossbar.
Foden doubled the lead in the 34th minute, firing into the roof of the net after a one-two with Rico Lewis, following a move started by Rayan Cherki.
City led 2-0 at halftime, but Stavros Pilios pulled one back seven minutes after the restart, finishing into the bottom-right corner after being released by Zine.
Five minutes later, Cherki cut inside from the edge of the box and beat Brignoli to restore the two-goal cushion.
Foden netted his second in the 65th minute, meeting a Lewis pass with a first-time strike into the top corner after a diagonal ball from Cherki.
The England international completed his first Champions League hat trick in the 76th minute, converting a low cross from Ryan McAidoo from close range.
Tuesday’s results
Fenerbahce 2-2 Slavia Prague
Sabah FK 1-2 Borussia Dortmund
FC Porto 0-1 PSV Eindhoven
Liverpool 4-3 Villarreal
Manchester City 5-1 AEK Athens
Paris Saint-Germain 4-2 Barcelona
Roma 4-0 Slovan Bratislava
Napoli 4-3 Bodo/Glimt
VfB Stuttgart 1-1 Atletico Madrid
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