A record-breaking week of Champions League action saw more goals fly in than ever before on a matchday, with 62 being plundered across the 16 games.
Those figures were helped hugely by six-goal showings away from home by German duo Borussia Monchengladbach and Bayern Munich, who put Shakhtar Donetsk and Red Bull Salzburg respectively to the sword.
Liverpool were not far behind with a convincing 5-0 victory away at Atalanta BC, while Manchester City and Chelsea both helped themselves to comfortable 3-0 wins against Olympiacos and Rennes respectively.
Manchester United did not make it a clean sweep for the Premier League sides, though, slumping to a 2-1 defeat at the previously pointless and goalless Istanbul Basaksehir.
Real Madrid picked up their much-needed first win of the group stage with an entertaining 3-2 win over Inter Milan, while there were also victories for Barcelona, Juventus and Borussia Dortmund.
Last year's runners-up Paris Saint-Germain fell to defeat at RB Leipzig in a battle between two of the final four from 2019-20, with the French giants having two men sent off to add insult to injury.
Here, Sports Mole selects its Champions League team of the week for matchday three.
Surprisingly for a week of unprecedented goalscoring in the Champions League, there were also a number of outstanding goalkeeping performances with Alisson Becker, Guilherme and Marc-Andre ter Stegen all deserving mentions.
However, it is the man in the opposite goal to Ter Stegen who gets the gloves for us, despite ending up on the losing side. Dynamo Kiev's 18-year-old keeper Ruslan Neshcheret made an astonishing 12 saves to keep the score down and keep Kiev in the game against Barcelona, including a string of very eye-catching stops.
Lazio were also denied victory at Zenit St Petersburg, but Francesco Acerbi's performance - which saw him win five aerial duels, three tackles and provide an assist - sees him pip teammate Wesley Hoedt and Liverpool's Joe Gomez to a place in the XI.
Indeed, Liverpool are unfortunate not to have more than just one representative in this week's team, but that is largely down to the free-scoring showings of Monchengladbach and Bayern, who dominate the selection.
That includes three of the back four, who are selected as much for their attacking contributions as their defensive ones; Lucas Hernandez and Jerome Boateng were both on the scoresheet for Bayern, while Stefan Lainer provided an assist as well as a clean sheet for Gladbach. Trent Alexander-Arnold and Lainer's teammate Ramy Bensebaini are among the honourable mentions at full-back.
The same clubs provide the central midfield duo, with Joshua Kimmich continuing his 100% record of being included in our Champions League team of the week this season courtesy of his two assists.
Lars Stindl contributed a goal and an assist in Gladbach's rout, albeit admittedly from a more advanced position than the one he takes up in this XI as he beats Kevin De Bruyne, Ivan Rakitic, Curtis Jones, Christopher Nkunku and Florian Neuhaus to a midfield spot.
It goes without saying that the forward positions were hotly contested in such a high-scoring week, meaning that there is no place for Erling Braut Haaland, Alvaro Morata, Timo Werner or Youssef En-Nesyri despite all of them helping themselves to braces.
Lautaro Martinez, Dusan Tadic, Paulo Dybala, Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah all chalked up both a goal and an assist yet are unfortunate to miss out, while Lionel Messi, Ferran Torres, Karim Benzema, Moussa Marega, Lucas Ocampos and Thorgan Hazard were among the other players who, in any ordinary week, would have been in contention.
Two players in particular were shoo-ins after helping themselves to hat-tricks, though. Liverpool's Diogo Jota is the first of those having continued his stunning start to life at the club, taking all three of his goals expertly after replacing Roberto Firmino in the starting lineup.
Alassane Plea somehow went one better, adding an assist to his three-goal haul - including an unstoppable second - to earn his place leading the line.
The Gladbach striker is joined by Robert Lewandowski, who added two more Champions League goals to his tally to narrowly pip his heir apparent Haaland to the second centre-forward spot.
On the right, Porto's Jesus Corona proved to be a nightmare for the Marseille defenders as he helped himself to two assists and won a penalty in his side's 3-0 win.
Barney Corkhill
