Champions League: Leipzig beat Real Madrid, Messi inspires PSG to 7-2 victory over Maccabi Haifa

Champions League nights always offer fans memorable moments, and tonight was no different. In a surprising turn of events, Real Madrid, the defending champions of Europe, were beaten with a scoreline of 3-2 by RB Leipzig. In another part of the continent, Paris, Argentina captain Lionel Messi inspired his club side, Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) to a 7-2 win over Israeli club Maccabi Haifa.

Leipzig started the match in spectacular fashion, with two goals coming within the first 20 minutes of the game courtesy of Gvardiol and Nkunku. Los Blancos reduced the German side’s two-goal lead in the first half itself, when Brazilian forward Vinicius Jr. found the back of the net.

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Timo Werner pulled one back for Leipzig in the 81st minute, but a reply again came from the Spanish giants when Rodrygo scored from the penalty spot in the fourth minute of added time.

Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe connected well in the PSG vs Maccabi Haifa match. Messi scored twice in the first half and even provided two assists, which saw Neymar and Mbappe add to their lead.

The Argentine genius has now become the oldest player in history to achieve the feat of two goals and two assists in a single Champions League match. He has already registered 15 goals and 12 assists this season, which makes him the only player in Europe to have 10+ goals and assists in 2022-23.

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Twitter has been abuzz with Messi’s performance in the match, and some have even brought up how he was not on the 30-man shortlist for the Ballon d’Or this year. Fans are even comparing the stats from Messi’s first 50 games for PSG to those of Cristiano Ronaldo’s for Juventus, to show that the Argentine superstar’s days at the top are far from over- while Messi has managed 48 goals+assists in the given number of matches, Ronaldo contributed 43.