LIVERPOOL, England - Liverpool stormed back from a two-goal deficit to beat Villarreal 4-3 at Anfield and maintain a perfect start to their Champions League campaign on Oct 20, while holders Paris Saint-Germain made it three wins from three against Barcelona.

At the Etihad, Phil Foden scored a hat-trick as Manchester City thrashed AEK Athens 5-1.

Villarreal coach Inigo Perez looked set to get one over on his old boss Andoni Iraola as the Spaniards deservedly took a 2-0 lead inside 30 minutes at Anfield through Georges Mikautadze and Sergi Cardona.

But twice the visitors were undone by their failure to defend crosses into the box as Alexis Mac Allister and Ronald Araujo levelled before half-time.

Mac Allister fired in his second 25 minutes from time and substitute Florian Wirtz completed the comeback as Liverpool moved alongside Paris Saint-Germain at the top of the Champions League table with nine points from three games.

Iraola left out all three of his over £100 million (S$170 million) forwards as Alexander Isak and Bradley Barcola joined Wirtz on the bench with one eye on the visit of high-flying Brighton in the Premier League on Oct 25.

Villarreal took full advantage of a much-changed Liverpool side early on and were gifted the opening goal after just four minutes.

Virgil van Dijk miscued his attempted header back to Alisson Becker and Mikautadze finished coolly from close range.

Perez’s own managerial career got started by chance when he was denied a work permit to join Iraola as his assistant at Bournemouth.

Instead, he ended up as boss at Rayo Vallecano, where he had previously worked under Iraola, and led the La Liga minnows to the Conference League final last season.

Perez’s knowledge of Iraola’s system was clear as Villarreal opened up Liverpool at will at times during the first half.

A fine team move finally led to a second goal when Nathan Saliba picked out the run of Cardona from left-back and he steered the ball past Alisson.

Liverpool’s understudies in attack had barely threatened until Mac Allister’s looping header from a Kostas Tsimikas corner kickstarted the fightback.

Rio Ngumoha then began to tease the Villarreal defence but the first of two assists for the 18-year-old owed a lot to poor defending.

Cardona let Ngumoha’s cross go at the back post, unaware that Araujo was steaming in to head in the equaliser.

That was the Uruguayan’s last act as he made way for Wirtz at half-time and Liverpool clicked through the gears after the break.

Ngumoha’s searing pace down the right wing opened up the Villarreal defence and his low cross was smashed in off the underside of the bar by Mac Allister.

Just three minutes later, Cody Gakpo picked out Wirtz to score his first goal of the season and hit back at his critics over a lack of end product.

Iraola’s men remained suspect at the back, though, and Tani Oluwaseyi set up a nervy finish with a sweet connection to Ayoze Perez’s cross.

But Liverpool held on to close in on the last 16 and leave Villarreal on just three points from their first three games.

Late goals give PSG win

Paris Saint-Germain made it three wins from three in this season’s Champions League, beating Barcelona 4-2 thanks to late goals from Vitinha and Fabian Ruiz.

PSG kept their place at the top of the early league-phase table, but could yet count the cost of injuries suffered by Ousmane Dembele, Marquinhos and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia at the Parc des Princes.

Barcelona twice levelled against the two-time defending champions, but were ultimately well beaten as they slipped to their first defeat of the season.

Hansi Flick’s men had won their previous 11 games in all competitions this term.

Kvaratskhelia hit the post, Dembele hobbled off and Ferran Torres was denied by Barca goalkeeper Joan Garcia in a fast-paced opening.

PSG took a deserved lead in the 38th minute as Desire Doue collected the ball outside the area and thumped a shot into the bottom corner.

Garcia made another excellent save shortly after the break from Achraf Hakimi, before Xavi Espart burst through to level for Barca against the run of play.

Kvaratskhelia and Marquinhos both pulled up injured within seconds of each other and had to leave the field.

The home team continued to press, though, and Lucas Hernandez restored their advantage 18 minutes from time with a brilliant header, shortly after former Barcelona forward Torres hit the post.

Lamine Yamal powered past Warren Zaire-Emery to equalise again seven minutes later.

But Vitinha hammered home from outside the box in the 81st minute and Ruiz’s tap-in gave Luis Enrique’s team a second straight 4-2 Champions League win after seeing off Man City by the same scoreline last week.

Hat-trick for City’s Foden

At the Etihad, Elliot Anderson put Manchester City in front with his first goal for the club, tapping in a 12th-minute opener after Enzo Fernandez’s free-kick bounced back off the crossbar.

Phil Foden made it two goals in as many games after scoring against Ipswich at the weekend, but AEK halved the deficit early in the second half through Stavros Pilios.

Rayan Cherki capped a fine individual performance by sweeping in City’s third in the 57th minute.

Foden later fired in his second and third goals in a comprehensive victory, despite Erling Haaland being rested after picking up a knock at the weekend.

Respite for Serie A clubs

Roma eased to their first Champions League win since 2019 as the capital club brushed aside pointless Slovan Bratislava 4-0 at the Stadio Olimpico.

All four Serie A clubs in the competition lost last week, but Napoli made it two wins from two on Oct 20 for the Italian sides.

Massimiliano Allegri’s men were twice pegged back by Bodo/Glimt but eventually got the better of the Norwegians in a 4-3 thriller, as Scott McTominay scored a brace.

Atletico Madrid played out a 1-1 draw with Stuttgart in Germany, despite playing much of the second half with 10 men.

Borussia Dortmund ended a run of four straight away defeats in the Champions League with a 2-1 win over Sabah in Baku.

Fenerbahce suffered another setback after last week’s humiliating 6-0 loss at Aston Villa, blowing a two-goal lead to be held 2-2 at home by Slavia Prague.

PSV Eindhoven clinched their first victory with a 1-0 success at Porto. AFP