The Champions League returned with a bang this week as Borussia Dortmund, Atletico Madrid and RB Leipzig took huge steps towards three big upsets.
Dortmund outgunned PSG at home, with Erling Haaland continuing his meteoric rise with a clinical brace, while Liverpool were blunted by a Diego Simeone masterclass at the Wanda Metropolitano.
Jose Mourinho was out-thought by Julian Nagelsmann as Tottenham’s depleted attack failed to fire at home.
Erling Haaland proved the difference as Borussia Dortmund beat PSG on Tuesday night
While in Italy, Atalanta’s fairytale campaign continued with a 4-1 hammering of Valencia at home.
Here Sportsmail look at some of the things we learned from a fascinating midweek of European action…
Haaland outshines Mbappe and Neymar
Can we shock you? Erling Haaland is good at football. No, like, he’s really good.
Eight goals in the Champions League group stage for rank outsiders Red Bull Salzburg proved that there was more to this 19-year-old than his surname.
For a man who has now scored 39 times this season, it seems faintly ridiculous to suggest that Tuesday’s brace against Paris Saint-Germain was the night the teenage sensation really announced himself.
But that is the power and allure of the biggest stage in world football. Kylian Mbappe was banging the goals in in Ligue 1, but it was only when he repeated the trick in the latter stages of this competition in 2017 that Europe took notice.
Haaland showcased everything about his game that has got tongues wagging, even a box-to-box sprint in just 6.64 seconds went viral. It’s the variety in his game that is so impressive, he’s a target man who can play off the last shoulder of defence, who can also come deep and lay the ball off.
His two strikes, one an instinctive poke in the six-yard box and the other, a piledriver from range, showed how difficult he is to stop. On the other side of the pitch, Mbappe and Neymar could only stand and admire.
PSG are less than the sum of their parts in Europe
It’s that time of year again. Winter is on the wane, spring is on its way, and PSG are cracking up in Europe again.
The Champions League’s perennial underachievers are on the brink after another away defeat. They have now won only two of their past nine away games in the knockout stage.
Three years after failing to defend a 4-0 first leg lead over Barcelona, they look no closer to exorcising those demons. Real Madrid outclassed them in 2018, while last year’s loss to Manchester United was as inexplicable as it was dramatic.
Against a team who have kept only two clean sheets so far in 2020, PSG’s star-studded attack looked flat and, if anything, underwhelming.
It will be a different story at home, and they will go in as favourites to finish the job. But it remains baffling that a team as packed with talent and big names as PSG remains so far off the pace among Europe’s heavyweights.
Next month’s return leg could prove era-defining for a number of these players, and especially manager Thomas Tuchel.
Neymar and Kylian Mbappe were outshone as PSG once again lost on the road in Europe
Reports of Diego Simeone’s demise have been exaggerated
The wrong opponents at the right time – that’s how many viewed Liverpool’s trip to Atletico Madrid. A team and style of play that was Jurgen Klopp’s kryptonite just a few years ago was now seen as a formality.
Atleti are not the team they were, and Diego Simeone’s message is not getting through anymore. Liverpool are not just European champions but by far the best team across the continent this season.
On Tuesday night, Simeone proved there is plenty of life left in his methods and his team. It was a masterclass, a textbook night of Simeoneball. Scrappy early goal followed by 85 minutes of a deep, packed defence strangling the life out of their opponents.
Liverpool fell into the trap, and with both Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah withdrawn by the 72nd minute, Klopp was almost resigned to his fate.
The German warned Atletico fans about the power of Anfield after the final whistle, and it will surely be a different game in the return leg. But that reckons against the genius of Simeone, who has proved time and time again that he is far more than a cheerleader on the sidelines.
Diego Simeone proved he is far more than a cheerleader as Atletico Madrid beat Liverpool
Liverpool’s away day blues could cost them
They’re the champions of Europe, but Liverpool are surprisingly brittle on the road in the Champions League. Tuesday night’s reverse was the sixth in their last 10 away games in the competition.
No one has lost more on the road in this time. It says much for Liverpool’s Anfield record that they have managed to thrive with such a sorry record away from home.
Atleti are formidable at home, having now won 12 of their last 13 home games in Europe with 11 clean sheets in that time.
But this is becoming a recurring problem for Klopp, who seems to be stuck between two stools when it comes to away games in the Champions League.
It stretches back to the group stages of the 2018-19 season, where the Reds were beaten by Napoli, Red Star Belgrade and PSG.
Last year’s masterly defeat of Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena is increasingly looking like an anomaly. At some stage this sequence could end up costing the Reds.
Mohamed Salah and Liverpool were off colour in a sixth defeat in 10 away from home in Europe
Klopp needs Keita in midfield three
Liverpool had 73 per cent of the ball in Spain but failed to create any clear-cut openings against Atletico. Every substitution Klopp made seemed to make his side worse, with Divock Origi and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain failing to make any kind of impact.
Sat on the bench for the whole 90 minutes was Naby Keita, the one man who could have unlocked that packed defence.
Klopp went with his first-choice midfield three, who started last season’s Champions League final.
But when they need to set the tempo and take the initiative, the combination of Jordan Henderson, Georginio Wijnaldum and Fabinho lacks cutting edge.
Klopp started Keita at the Nou Camp last year, and certainly has no aversion to starting him in big games, so it was strange not to see him at any point on Tuesday.
With a two-goal victory needed at Anfield next month, Klopp will need the Guinea midfielder, and probably from the start.
Jurgen Klopp will want more from Fabinho and his midfielders in the return leg at Anfield
Spurs will miss Son more than Kane
Jose Mourinho said Spurs went ‘to a fight with a gun without bullets’ after being beaten at home by Leipzig on Wednesday night.
Tottenham were abject in their home leg and looked to be playing a different game in a different era to their vibrant opponents.
They have not been helped by an injury crisis that has stripped them of Harry Kane and Son Heung-min, their two leading lights in attack.
It is the absence of the South Korean, though, that looked to most hurt Spurs this week. Without his pace they lacked a certain x-factor and were unable to really stretch Leipzig.
Giovani Lo Celso looks increasingly at home, but Dele Alli struggled and his angry reaction to being substituted was a window into a squad that is far from happy.
It is hard to see Spurs overturning this in the second leg – even a Lucas Moura hat-trick might not be enough this time.
Tottenham looked toothless against RB Leipzig, despite the best efforts of Giovani Lo Celso
Mourinho looked like yesterday’s man against Nagelsmann
There are 25 years between Mourinho and Leipzig manager Julian Nagelsmann, and boy do it show.
It has been six years since Mourinho won a knockout tie in the Champions League. That drought is sure to extend to seven now.
Each time his style looks more outdated than the last, and it has never been so stark as this year up against 32-year-old Nagelsmann.
He became the youngest manager ever to take charge in the knockout stages of this competition, and he looks set to stay for a long time.
He looked right at home, but Mourinho is increasingly yesterday’s man.
Jose Mourinho looked like yesterday’s man as Tottenham limped to defeat at home
Atalanta are the surprise package of the season
Valencia’s trip to Atalanta didn’t set the pulse racing for many fans, but it offered further proof the hosts are this year’s surprise package.
Their debut campaign looks set to take them to the quarter-finals after a thumping 4-1 win at the San Siro.
Gian Piero Gasperini’s side have won admirers for their slick attacking style, and it was on full display here.
They are likely to be everyone’s first choice of opponents in the last eight, but they cannot be underestimated.
Having lost their first three group games they have more than earned their spot in this company.
Atalanta surged to a 4-1 victory over Valencia as their fairytale season continued