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Barcelona, Bayern on rampage as Messi sets record

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Messi hits 3 as Barcelona wallop Guardiola's Man City

Favorites Bayern Munich and Barcelona cruised to 5-0 and 7-0 victories over Rostov and Celtic, respectively, to kick off this season’s competition in style.

Robert Lewandowski put Bayern ahead against the Russian runner-up from the penalty spot and Thomas Muller slammed in a David Alaba cross before halftime to make it 2-0.

Joshua Kimmich turned in a Douglas Costa cross to make it three and headed a fourth soon after before Juan Bernat made it 5-0. In the same group Atletico Madrid won a controversial game 1-0 away to PSV Eindhoven on a volley from Saul Niguez.

In Barcelona, Neymar scored one goal and set up four others, while Lionel Messi struck for a hat trick in the romp.

In the same group, torrential rain forced the postponement of Manchester City’s game against Borussia Monchengladbach. That match is now slated for Wednesday at 2:45 p.m. ET.

Arsenal overcame a poor first half away to Paris Saint-Germain to snatch a valuable point in a 1-1 draw, with Alexis Sanchez canceling out Edinson Cavani’s opener in a game that ended in red cards for Olivier Giroud and Marco Verratti.

It was a similar story in the other game in the group as Ludogorets was denied its second-ever Champions League victory after a late equalizer from Basel’s Renato Steffen.

The Bulgarian champion’s only previous victory had come in Basel, and it looked on course to repeat that when Jonathan Cafu put it ahead after a classic breakaway in the first half. But a goalkeeping error allowed Steffen to angle in a volley with 10 minutes remaining.

Elsewhere, Arkadiusz Milik scored with two headers as Napoli came from behind to win 2-1 away to Dynamo Kiev. Dynamo had taken an early lead through Denys Garmash and had Serhiy Sydorchuk sent off midway through the second half after collecting a second yellow card for a dive.

In the other game in the group, an injury-time free kick from Anderson Talisca, on loan from Benfica, earned Besiktas a point against his parent club. Young Argentinian summer signing Franco Cervi had followed in to put Benfica ahead after Tolga Zengin had blocked Eduardo Salvi’s shot.

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