It’s the last sweep of the first meetings of all teams in the group stages this week and it’s really jam packed. This week we were gifted with 54 goals in all games, coming from headers to free kicks all the way down to tap-ins.
On Tuesday, Manchester City suited up for their home game against first time qualifiers Atalanta. The scoring run was open by Atalanta when City gave up a penalty in the first third of the game. Soon after City striker Kun Aguero hit the back of the net, then four minutes later he added another with his precise spot kick just before halftime. A little over ten minutes after the break, City decided to extend the gap between them and their opponent, with Raheem Sterling sealing the game with 3 goals within the span of 11 minutes and an addition to the score sheet by the youngster Phil Foden. This ending the tally at 5-1, giving City their well deserved win and top spot at the top of the table.
Later on in the Karaiskakis Stadium in Greece, Olympiacos looked to hold their own at home against German giants Bayern Munich. At the start of the match they looked very optimistic towards a likely draw or win, coming up with the opening goal in the 23rd minute. But the Polish talisman Robert Lewandowski hit one back for FCB, making the scores all even by the end of the half. With the second half ahead, Bayern looked to seal out the game and take the win in stride. And that is exactly what they did. Scoring two more goals before the end of play and leaving the scoreline at 3-2. This made Bayern a perfect four for four in the competition and the top of their table.
PSG had travelled out to Belgium for their meeting with Club Brugge. This is actually their first meeting in any competition in soccer. With PSG still on a 3 game winning streak in the competition, they were looking to further it to 4 games and running. Fortunately, that is the story to be told. Striker Mauro Icardi opened the scoring in the first 7 minutes of play. Then went on to score one more to complete the brace. Also, late substitute Kylian Mbappe came on and scored an additional three to bag a hat trick and put PSG up 5-0 by the end match. This secured their top spot in Group A.
The next day Chelsea was set to suit up against their toughest opponents yet in Ajax. This was a much needed win for the Blues, being in one of the toughest groups in the competition. The match started off pretty quiet, with little to no chances created by both sides. After the half, both teams looked to get back to scoring ways. Early into the second half Ajax produced the best chance in the game so far with a header coming off the post from a Promes corner. Close to the end of the game Chelsea’s Michy Batshuayi broke the deadlock with the only goal in the game. The match ended 1-0 with Chelsea earning a must needed away win in the Champions League.

Later on, Italian side Inter Milan was set to face Dortmund at home. This was their first meeting in the competition. Both teams needed the win to keep up with the fast moving Catalans, both teams having already dropped one match to their opponents. It didn’t take long for the scoring to start with Lautaro Martinez bagging one for Milan in the opening 25 minutes. Dortmund not having an answer entered the half down by one goal. Still down towards the end of play Milan doubled the deficit with the help of an Antonio Candreva goal. This ending the game at 2-0 in favor of Milan and giving them their first win in the competition for this season.

Now that we are done with the first sweep of games in the group stages, we now know the degree to which each group difficulty is and with all that we can start our predictions for the knockout stages.