Champions League roundup: Bayern win at Metropolitano, PSG rout Villarreal, Koita nets Mauritanian first
Bayern Munich beat Atlético Madrid 2-0 at the Metropolitano and Paris Saint-Germain hammered Villarreal 6-0 in Champions League fixtures this week, while Manchester United recovered from a 2-0 half-time deficit to defeat Roma 3-2 and AEK Athens’ Aboubakary Koita scored the first-ever Champions League goal by a player from Mauritania, according to reports published on 5 November 2026.
Still without the recovering Vincent Kompany, Bayern Munich were described as among the favourites to win the Champions League and would be seeking their first European title since 2019-20; René Marić’s side produced a dominant display at the Metropolitano as Lennart Karl and Konrad Laimer made the difference, with Harry Kane providing Laimer with a fine assist in his first continental appearance since winning the Ballon d’Or. Bayern remain just outside the top eight, which guarantees automatic passage to the last 16, having won two and drawn two of their opening four matches.
Michael Carrick’s claim to the Manchester United job received a boost as his side overturned a 2-0 half-time deficit to beat Roma 3-2; United have now won two, drawn two and lost none, which the report says is enough to enter the international break in the play-off places. Villarreal manager Iñigo Pérez had warned that if visiting Paris Saint-Germain “smell fear, they won’t forgive you”, and PSG’s early onslaught produced four goals inside 17 minutes en route to a 6-0 victory, with Fabián Ruiz among the scorers and finishing the match with a brace.
Inter Milan responded to their Milan derby defeat by beating Feyenoord 3-0 away, Yann Bisseck scoring an eighth-minute opener as the 2025 runners-up maintained control through the remainder of the match. “Football doesn’t always go to plan, but you have to respond, make the right changes and find a way to get back on track,” Inter coach Cristian Chivu said. Djed Spence, named player of the match on Tuesday after providing the assist for Bisseck’s opener, has seldom featured this season, having made his first Serie A start only in Saturday’s defeat to Milan.
Como followed a previous 4-1 win over Manchester United with an emphatic 9-1 victory against Lens, Cesc Fàbregas’s team continuing to defy expectations in their first Champions League campaign; the club sit fourth in both Serie A and the Champions League tables. The run has been noted in the report as an unexpected surge for a side with limited European pedigree.
Aboubakary Koita’s performance for AEK Athens produced a sequence of moments that altered Real Madrid’s night: after having taken just two shots in his first 180 minutes of this season’s Champions League, the 28-year-old winger cut inside Marc Cucurella and scored in the 12th minute with a low strike between Thibaut Courtois and the near post — the first Champions League goal scored by a player from Mauritania. Jude Bellingham had one effort ruled out for a narrow offside before later scoring with a left-footed finish, Koita then threading a pass for Stavros Pilios to equalise in the 75th minute before Kylian Mbappé made it 2-2 three minutes later and Federico Valverde produced a long-range winner; Koita was sent off at the final whistle after telling the referee to “fuck off” and remained on the pitch to plead his case.
Dirk Kuyt took charge of Fenerbahçe as caretaker after İsmail Kartal’s resignation and said on the eve of the match, “As soon as the draw came up, as a technical member of the staff I was really excited because everyone knows how much Fenerbahçe and Liverpool mean to me. Of course tomorrow will be a very, very special occasion for me. But at the stage we are in, I’m not the important person. It’s the club.” Fenerbahçe recovered from 2-1 down with 20 minutes remaining as Archie Brown equalised before setting up Vedat Muriqi’s winner; the defeat was Andoni Iraola’s first in European competition, although Liverpool remain comfortably placed to advance. At the Camp Nou, Lamine Yamal opened inside seven minutes to move to 14 Champions League goals as the highest-scoring teenager, Raphinha scored a second-half brace as Barcelona controlled the match — outshooting Aston Villa 16-9 and limiting them to one effort on target — and Unai Emery reflected: “The test was definitely not in the level we want to achieve but there are a lot of things to learn, a lot of experience for the players and us. It is giving me a lot of information to analyze [in order to] compete at this level. Overall, we are competing fantastically in the Champions League, although playing the match we played we have work to do to get to this level [of Barcelona].” Villa finished the matchweek in the top eight and face a Premier League trip to Old Trafford on Sunday; their next Champions League fixture is away at Galatasaray on 24 November.
The competition resumes on 24 November with Bodø/Glimt hosting LASK and Galatasaray welcoming Aston Villa, while Como and AEK Athens will look to boost their hopes of progress and Real Betis aim to rebound from their first league-phase defeat at Slovan Bratislava. Kevin De Bruyne and Napoli will travel to Manchester City for a second consecutive autumn, with Massimiliano Allegri’s side struggling at the halfway point of the league phase; on 25 November Villarreal visit Slavia Prague, Carrick – or whoever replaces him – will face a test at Sporting CP, and Liverpool head to Club Brugge.