Champions League results: Liverpool & Real Madrid win, Bayern ...

What next for Liverpool?

Saturday, September 21: Bournemouth (H), Premier League, 3pm BST, 10am ET

What next for Real Madrid?

Saturday, September 21: Espanyol (H), La Liga, 8pm BST, 3pm ET

Trent Alexander-Arnold's assist tonight was his 80th for Liverpool.

In fact, since he made his first-team debut back in October 2016 (nearly eight years ago!), only Kevin De Bruyne (146) and Trent's team-mate Mohamed Salah (90) have laid on more assists in all competitions among Premier League players.

Liverpool forward Cody Gakpo, brilliant today, also spoke to Amazon Prime after the match to reflect on his and his team's performance.

He said: "I think we had more chances but they were dangerous in moments as well. We controlled the game pretty good and it's a fair result for us. We stayed calm and stayed focused.

"We have to thank our centre-backs for two great headers. After that moment we controlled the game better. We work on set-pieces before every game and we're very happy it worked out today.

"Every player wants to play and I got my moment. I really wanted to show myself and I am very happy with an assist but also especially with the win."

Liverpool manager Arne Slot, speaking to Amazon Prime after the match, said: "A great way to spend my birthday. We have more than 11 players and the ones that came in did well. You wouldn't have said this after five minutes, but after we did well.

"Losing Saturday was a blow and to be 1-0 down early tonight, you are wondering how we react. But if you can play so good it is - I won't say a disgrace - unbelievable you lose to Forest at home if you can play like this today.

"I would have played Cody Gakpo on Saturday but he played two games for the national side. Today was more a team display than an individual display."

That's now 53 goals in 50 appearances in all competitions for Kane since moving to Bayern Munich.

Incredible numbers.

A very honest appraisal of Real Madrid's win against Stuttgart from Bellingham in his post-match interview with TNT Sports.

"They're a really good team, but we gave up far too many chances," he said. "I thought we pressed well at times but as soon as they got through the initial pressure, they seemed to cause us problems.

"We created quite a lot (of chances) ourselves, we had the ball in a lot of dangerous areas and we're still waiting for it to fully click. But we've shown we can win when we're not at our best so we'll take the positives, work on the negatives and improve for the next games."

Most Champions League hat-tricks by nationality:

England's breakdown: Andrew Cole x2, Michael Owen x2, Harry Kane x2, Mike Newell x1, Alan Shearer x1, Wayne Rooney x1, Danny Welbeck x1, Raheem Sterling x1, Marcus Rashford x1

17 shots at the Bernabeu! More of the ball than Real Madrid, on their own patch!

Some effort from Stuttgart.

The Athletic's Carl Anka on X/Twitter/whatever it's called said: "Scoring seven goals on a Champions League night isn't for everybody ????"

A 7-0 win in the League Cup third round for Manchester United against League One side Barnsley tonight.

Different worlds.

How many goals did Bayern score?

"Nine".

Alright, don't worry about it.

It says a lot about Stuttgart's performance that, despite Real Madrid winning 3-1, Thibaut Courtois was awarded the Player of the Match. He spoke to Movistar TV.

"Stuttgart are a super attacking team, they play well, their games always end up 3-2, or 3-3," said the Belgian.

"But they leave space behind. In the opening 25 minutes, they did us a lot of damage, then we improved and we got ahead in the second half.

"Then we did not take advantage of our chances to counter. And they can score. But we reacted well, and in the end we won."

He then touched on Endrick's late goal: "If he missed, they (Mbappe and Vinicius) would have killed him. But he had the confidence to shoot, and he has a super powerful shot. And if he scores, everyone just has to shut up. He is a kid with a lot of quality and a lot of personality."

The story should have been Kylian Mbappe beginning his quest for a first Champions League title with the perfect opening night. And while Real did secure victory after late goals from Antonio Rudiger and Endrick, a disjointed display nearly led to Stuttgart taking a point from the Bernabeu.

The German side dominated the early stages as Real relied heavily on Thibaut Courtois to keep the scores level, while the Champions League holders also had a penalty ruled out by VAR after Rudiger went down in the area.

Mbappe, who joined from Paris Saint-Germain in the summer, finished a flowing move early in the second half, but Stuttgart got an equaliser midway through the second half before Rudiger headed them in front and Endrick sealed the points with a brilliant run and goal.

Below, The Athletic's Dermot Corrigan breaks down the action.

GO FURTHER

Real Madrid 3 Stuttgart 1 – Mbappe scores on big night but issues remain for Ancelotti

Liverpool enjoyed their return to Champions League action — recording a 3-1 comeback win against AC Milan at San Siro.

Arne Slot’s team went behind inside three minutes as Christian Pulisic took advantage of some lax defending from Konstantinos Tsimikas to fire home from a tight angle.

It was the worst possible start for Liverpool but Slot got a pleasingly strong reaction from his side, with the full-backs assisting the centre-halves for a pair of set-piece goals in the first half.

Dominik Szoboszlai then finished off fine work from the dynamic Gakpo to give Slot’s side three points in arguably their hardest away game of the new-look league stage.

Below, The Athletic's Andy Jones and Mark Carey analyse the game.

GO FURTHER

AC Milan 1 Liverpool 3 – Gakpo stars as Slot’s back four all contribute to impressive comeback – The Briefing

FT Real Madrid 3-1 Stuttgart

There's been more action and entertainment than expected at the Bernabeu tonight, and probably more than Madrid coach Ancelotti — who was visibly annoyed with the match officials — would have wanted.

Plenty of issues for the Italian to work on, especially in midfield and defence, but there's still plenty of time left in the season.

FT: Milan 1-3 Liverpool

Liverpool are victorious at San Siro.

They went behind early but it was an accomplished comeback from Arne Slot's men.

90+7' Milan 1-3 Liverpool

Milan didn't give up, to their credit, and Rafael Leao sat down Joe Gomez - literally, the defender fell on his backside - and lashed it towards the near post, but it was a magnificent save from Alisson.

And...

FT Real Madrid 3-1 Stuttgart

A thoroughly excellent Champions League game is brought to an end at the Bernabeu.

In the end, the scoreline flatters Real Madrid who were fortunate to win this one based on the balance of play. But, as it so often does, their Champions League know-how has won out against a less experienced opponent.

Goals from Mbappe, Rudiger and Endrick mean Real Madrid's title defence is off to a winning start.

Stuttgart can take real optimism from this performance, though, and they will cause real problems for their other Champions League league-phase opponents.

Leon Goretzka makes it 9-2 to Bayern Munich.

It’s their biggest Champions League victory. Although it remains someway short of their biggest competitive win, which was 16-1 against DJK Waldberg in the 1997 DFB-Pokal.

And last year they also won a friendly against FC Rottach Egern 27-0.

So Zagreb should consider themselves lucky, if anything.