The second matchday of the Champions League league phase, played on Tuesday (13) and Wednesday (14), ended with 78 goals in 18 matches — an average of 4.33 per game. The count follows directly from the scores published by UEFA itself.
Across the first two matchdays, the competition has produced 147 goals in 36 games, or 4.08 per match. For comparison, the 2023/24 season, the last with four-team groups, averaged 3.00 goals per game, and 2024/25, the first in the single-league format, came in at 3.27. The statistics site 365scores described the 78 goals as a record for a single matchday in the competition.
Wednesday: 46 goals in nine games
The busier day was Wednesday, with 46 goals in nine matches — a little over five per game, and no goalless draws.
At the Etihad Stadium, Paris Saint-Germain beat Manchester City 4-2. The French side scored three times in the first half, through Désiré Doué, Ousmane Dembélé and Vitinha. Erling Haaland scored both of City's goals and brought his side back into the match, but Maghnes Akliouche settled it.
The highest-scoring game of the night was in Austria: LASK 3-6 Liverpool, nine goals in all. In Rome, Real Madrid came from two goals down to win 4-3. Aston Villa thrashed Fenerbahçe 6-0, and Bodø/Glimt beat Borussia Dortmund 1-0 with a second-half goal — the only match on the matchday decided by a single goal.
The day was completed by Feyenoord 3-2 Como, Shakhtar Donetsk 3-1 AEK Athens, Real Betis 3-2 Porto and Slovan Bratislava 0-3 Stuttgart.
Tuesday: 32 goals in nine games
On the opening day of the matchday, Club Brugge beat Inter 4-3 in Milan and Barcelona won 4-1 at Galatasaray in Istanbul. Bayern Munich drew 3-3 with Viking in Norway, the day's most surprising result.
The other scores: Lens 0-2 Sporting, Sabah 2-0 Slavia Prague, Arsenal 3-0 Lille, Atlético Madrid 2-0 Manchester United, Leipzig 1-0 PSV Eindhoven and Villarreal 3-1 Napoli.
In attack, PSG lead with 10 goals in two matchdays, followed by Aston Villa and Barcelona on nine each.
There is a likely structural explanation for the goal inflation: in the single-league format adopted in 2024/25, each club faces eight different opponents drawn from strength-based pots, which produces lopsided ties that the old four-team group, with home-and-away games against the same sides, did not generate.
With information from UEFA (official scores), 365scores and myKhel.
