Record-Breaking Jornada 3 in the 2025-26 Season
The UEFA Champions League, Europe’s premier club football tournament, set a new goal-scoring record in a single round of matches following this week’s action.
Between Tuesday, October 21 and Wednesday, October 22, Jornada 3 of the 2025-26 season took place, resulting in a total of 71 goals across 18 matches. This equates to an average of 3.9 goals per stadium hosting ‘La Orejona’.
The Confederación Europea de Futbol (UEFA), which has organized the tournament since the 1992-93 season under its current Champions League name (previously known as the Copa de Europa from 1955 to 1992), officially announced this record.
UEFA specified that the previous record originated from goal tallies during the six-jornada group stage between the 1992-93 and 2023-24 seasons, as well as the eight-jornada format introduced in 2024-25 and continuing into the 2025-26 season.
This is significant because, prior to the 2024-25 season, there were 16 matches per jornada due to the involvement of 32 teams. Currently, there are 36 teams, resulting in 18 matches per date.
Key Goal-Scoring Teams
The reigning Champions League champion, Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), played a significant role in breaking the record by defeating Bayer Leverkusen 2-7 in Germany, with six different goal scorers (Desiré Doué being the only one to score more than once).
Other teams also contributed to the high goal tally: Barcelona thrashed Olympiacos 6-1, PSV Eindhoven overcame Napoli 6-2, Chelsea defeated Ajax 5-1, and Liverpool also triumphed over Eintracht Frankfurt with a 5-1 scoreline. Bayern Munich won 4-0 against Brujas, Arsenal repeated that score over Atlético de Madrid, and Inter Milan defeated Union Saint-Gilloise.
Interestingly, despite the record-breaking goal tally, three matches ended in 0-0 draws: Kairat from Kazakhstan versus Pafos from Cyprus, Monaco from France against Tottenham from England, and Atalanta from Italy versus Slavia Prague from the Czech Republic.
This season previously highlighted in Jornada 1 when it tied the goal-scoring record of Jornada 5 from the 2024-25 season with 67.
The highest-scoring jornada among the 32 teams occurred in Jornada 1 of the 2000-01 season, with 63 goals across 16 matches.
These numbers encourage record-breaking after the format change beginning with the 2024-25 season. Not only did participant numbers increase, but jornadas extended from six to eight, and the group stage was eliminated in favor of a single league table.
Perfect Start for Five Teams
On another note, only five teams maintain a perfect record after three jornadas in this season: PSG, Bayern Munich, Inter Milan, Arsenal, and Real Madrid.
All five teams have accumulated nine points. Notably, both Inter and Arsenal have yet to concede a goal. PSG leads the overall table due to having more goals scored (13) than Bayern Munich (+10), despite both having the same goal difference.
Real Madrid and Bayern secured their third victories this Wednesday, with Real Madrid overcoming Juventus 1-0 and Bayern defeating Brujas 4-0.
Real Madrid secured their first victory against Juventus at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium since 2013 and remains motivated for the upcoming weekend, where they will host Barcelona in another El Clásico for Jornada 10 of LaLiga.
Bayern Munich’s standout player was English forward Harry Kane, who scored in their triumph over Brujas and equalized with Real Madrid’s French star Kylian Mbappé, who leads this season’s goal-scoring chart with five goals alongside Kane.
Top 5 Goal Scorers in Champions League (Up to J3 of 2025-26)
- Harry Kane (Bayern Munich) – 5
- Kylian Mbappé (Real Madrid) – 5
- Anthony Gordon (Newcastle) – 4
- Erling Haaland (Manchester City) – 4
- Marcus Rashford (Barcelona) – 4
