Barcelona produced an impressive second-half comeback to defeat Galatasaray in Istanbul, with Anthony Gordon scoring his first Champions League goal for the Spanish club.
The visitors initially struggled to quieten the home crowd but dominated possession in the opening stages. However, Galatasaray took the lead with their first significant attacking opportunity. Moments after Gordon’s appeal for a penalty was rejected, Rafael Leao advanced down the left flank and delivered a cutback to Aleksey Batrakov, who fired into the bottom corner with the help of a deflection off Joao Cancelo.
Galatasaray appeared to extend their advantage six minutes later when Baris Alper Yilmaz redirected Victor Osimhen’s header past Barcelona goalkeeper Joan Garcia. However, a VAR review ruled out the goal for a marginal offside.
Barcelona gradually regained control and equalised two minutes before half-time. Dani Olmo redirected the ball into Cancelo’s path, allowing the defender to curl a superb finish beyond Turkish goalkeeper Ugurcan Cakir. Hansi Flick’s side returned from the break with renewed intensity and took the lead in the 50th minute. Fermin Lopez rose to meet a cross from Lamine Yamal and headed home to complete Barcelona’s turnaround.
Gordon’s First UCL Goal for Barca
Three minutes later, Yamal produced an excellent piece of close control before setting up Gordon, who fired past Cakir to register his first Champions League goal for Barcelona. The strike came just three days after the forward scored his first goal for the club. Barcelona continued to threaten after taking control of the contest. Summer signing Karim Adeyemi added a fourth goal, finishing from the left side of the penalty area after Gabriel Jesus directed a Yamal cross into his path.
The victory further highlighted Barcelona’s attacking productivity under Flick. The club had scored 84 goals in 28 Champions League matches under the German manager, averaging three goals per game. That record gave Barcelona the highest goals-per-game ratio in the competition among clubs managed by the same coach for at least 20 matches since the 1992–93 season.
Barcelona now have six points from their opening two league-phase matches, having started their campaign with a 5–1 victory over Feyenoord. They will next travel to France to face Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday, October 20.
Galatasaray, meanwhile, will seek to recover from consecutive European setbacks when they face Lille on Wednesday, October 21.
