Paris Saint-Germain began their Champions League title defence in emphatic fashion as Ferran Torres scored a hat-trick in a dominant 6-1 victory over Slovan Bratislava.
Ousmane Dembele was also outstanding at the Parc des Princes, contributing two goals and two assists, while Fabian Ruiz added a late sixth to cap an impressive performance from Luis Enrique’s team.
PSG started aggressively and nearly took the lead after just three minutes when Dro Fernandez’s effort was stopped by the advancing Dominik Takac.
The hosts eventually broke the deadlock in the 17th minute. Nuno Mendes’ powerful long-range effort struck the right post, with Dembele reacting quickest to fire in the rebound.
Dembele came close to adding another moments later but narrowly missed. He would not have to wait long, however, doubling PSG’s advantage six minutes later by heading in Fernandez’s deflected attempt at the back post after punishing a loose pass from Sahmkou Camara.
PSG extended their lead in the 31st minute when Ferran finished from close range. Dembele nearly completed his own hat-trick before the interval, but Takac produced an excellent save to turn his close-range effort onto the crossbar.
Two minutes into the second half, Ferran scored again, curling a fine effort from just outside the box after a brilliant run by Maghnes Akliouche.
The Spanish forward completed his hat-trick in the 57th minute, instinctively turning Dembele’s quickly taken corner into the net.
Slovan pulled one back almost immediately when Suleiman Camara beat Illia Zabarnyi before placing a superb finish into the top-right corner.
PSG continued searching for more goals, with Mika Godts shooting wide and substitute Senny Mayulu forcing Takac into two quick saves.
The sixth goal finally arrived three minutes from full time. Godts’ short corner found Fernandez, whose cross was only partially cleared before Fabian Ruiz finished first time into the bottom-left corner.
Ferran helps PSG move past Ligue 1 struggles
PSG have endured an underwhelming start to their Ligue 1 campaign, failing to win any of their opening three league matches for the first time since the 2012-13 season. Their European campaign, however, got off to a completely different start.
The Parisians have now won their last five Champions League opening-day matches, scoring 15 goals while conceding just two.
They also scored six goals on MD1 for the first time, with summer signing Ferran Torres taking centre stage.
Ferran became only the ninth Spanish player to score a Champions League hat-trick and the first player since Robert Lewandowski in September 2022 to score three times on his debut in the competition for a club.
Dembele also enhanced his Ballon d’Or credentials with another outstanding display. The Frenchman became only the third PSG player to register at least two goals and two assists in a single Champions League match, following in the footsteps of Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi.
Despite facing weaker opposition, PSG will be delighted with both the performance and the much-needed victory. They recorded a huge 4.71 expected goals from 35 attempts, while Slovan managed just 0.64 xG from nine shots.
Luis Enrique will hope the emphatic result provides momentum ahead of Sunday’s Ligue 1 meeting with Brest.