Barcelona made light work of Czech Republic giants Viktoria Plzen in their opening fixture of the 2022/23 UEFA Champions League, as they secured a resounding 5-1 victory at Spotify Camp Nou.
Goals from Franck Kessie and Ferran Torres on either side of a sensational hat-trick from superstar Robert Lewandowski sealed the emphatic victory for the Blaugrana, which puts them on top of Group C ahead of Bayern Munich, who beat Inter Milan 2-0 in their opener.
The 5-1 triumph on Wednesday is the first time that Xavi’s Barça have scored five goals in a match, after eight games in which the team netted four goals.
Kessie started the rout for Barcelona when he found the back of the net just 13 minutes into the game in what was his first competitive start for the Catalans since arriving this summer.
In the process, the Ivorian became the quickest debutant to score a goal as a starter in the Champions League for Barcelona.
From then on, it was the Lewandowski show, as he plundered yet another career hat-trick to put the result to bed. At 34 years, the Poland captain became the oldest player in Barça’s history to score a Champions League hat-trick.
With his treble, Lewandowski also became the first player to score a hat-trick in the UEFA Champions League for three different teams – Borussia Dortmund (1), Bayern Munich (4) and Barcelona (1).
The three goals also meant Lewandowski went past Karim Benzema in the list of all-time leading goalscorers in the Champions League. The Barcelona superstar has now netted 89 goals in the competition and is only behind Cristiano Ronaldo (141) and Lionel Messi (125).
Ousmane Dembele also put on a fine show for Barcelona, finishing with two assists and dazzling with his brilliant wing-play.
On Wednesday night, the French international made the most progressive passes (7) by any player. And Lewandowski was the player to receive the most progressive passes (9).
