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No team ever won Champions League after losing opener
No CL winners have ever started their campaign with a defeat.
The best finish by a team that started out with a defeat is runners-up. This was achieved by AC Milan in 1994/95 and Bayern München in 1998/99.
The winners of the Champions League in each of the previous eight seasons kicked off their campaign with a victory.
The last CL winners to have opened their campaign with a draw were Internazionale in 2009/10. They were the sixth CL winners that started out with a draw.
Twenty of the previous 26 CL winning campaigns opened their campaign with a win. Thirteen of the 20 also won their second group match.
Driver's seat for teams that win first two
Of the 120 CL campaigns that started with two victories, only 10 failed to survive the group phase. The 110 that punched their ticket represent a 92% success rate.
Spartak Moskva and Rangers were the victims twice, crashing out in the group phase after starting with two victories in 1998/99 and 2010/11 and 2000/01 and 2007/08 respectively.
The most recent casualties were BATE Borisov in 2012/13.
Thirteen of the 26 CL winners started off their campaign with two victories. Following the 2008/09 season, only Real Madrid have managed this, in 2013/14, 2015/16 and last season.
Teams that lose their first two find themselves in peril
Losing the first two matches of a CL campaign is something a team can barely afford. Of the 114 campaigns that failed to register a point in their first two matches 104 went out in the group phase. This comes down to 91%.
Of the 10 teams that turned the tide after losing their first two, two managed the feat after the 2010/11 season. Galatasaray achieved that in 2012/13 and pushed on to the quarterfinals, the best ever finish in the competition by a side that dropped their first two. In 2015/16, Arsenal reached the Last 16 after losing their first two in 2015/16.
Newcastle United's 2002/03 campaign is still the only one in which a team survived the (first) group phase after losing their first three matches.
Messi extends CL record with eighth hat-trick
Lionel Messi kicked off his 2018/19 CL campaign by scoring a hat-trick in a 4-0 home victory over PSV a fortnight ago.
For Messi, it was his eighth career hat-trick in the CL main competition, setting a record in the competition. He thereby surpassed the seven by Cristiano Ronaldo.
No other than these two players even recorded more than three CL hat-tricks. Mario Gómez, Filippo Inzaghi and Luiz Adriano registered precisely three.
Messi scored all of his eight CL hat-tricks for FC Barcelona and he scored them against eight different opponents.
For Messi, the hat-trick against PSV was the 48th of his career at senior level, in all competitions for club and country.
Argentina joins 500-club, as the Dutch come up on milestone of their own
Before the start of this season, players representing Argentina had scored 496 CL goals in the main competition.
On the opening night, a Lionel Messi hat-trick and the first career CL goal by Mauro Icardi raised Argentina's total to 500. On Wednesday, Nicolás Tagliafico raised that number to 502 by scoring a brace.
Argentina became only the fourth country to celebrate 500+ CL goals, following Brazil (871), Spain (655) and France (650).
Elsewhere, Ajax' Donny van de Beek became the 98th player representing Netherlands to score his first career CL goal. On 25 November 1992, Marco van Basten became the first Dutchman to score in the competition.
Holland can become the sixth country to be represented by at least 100 different goalscorers in the CL, following Brazil (207), France (183), Spain (140), Germany (128) and Italy (102).
Head-to-Head
PSV will meet Internazionale for the third time in Europe.
Inter won both previous encounters in the 2007/08 CL group phase: 2-0 at home and 1-0 away. Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored both goals at Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, and Julio Ricardo Cruz netted in Eindhoven.
PSV have won seven of their 12 home matches against Italian teams: W7-D2-L3.
Internazionale can become the first Italian team to win two away matches against PSV. Currently, PSV have lost one match against Inter, AC Milan and Fiorentina.
Inter are unbeaten in their last nine matches against Dutch clubs (W6-D3-L0), since a 1-0 home defeat against Feyenoord in the semifinals of the 2001/02 UEFA Cup.
Inter are unbeaten in their last six visits to Holland (W2-D4-L0), and they have scored in each of these matches. Their last defeat in the Netherlands was a 2-0 loss at FC Groningen in the second round of the 1983/84 UEFA Cup.
Ronaldo, Wim Jonk, Andy van der Meyde, Jérémie Bréchet, Tijani Belaid, and Vampeta played for both PSV and Inter.
PSV
PSV lost their opening match 4-0 at FC Barcelona to extend their winless run in the Champions League to nine matches (W0-D4-L5). Their last victory in the competition was a 2-1 group stage home win over CSKA Moskva on 8 December 2015.
PSV can start a CL season with consecutive defeats for the first time since 2008/09, when they followed a 3-0 home defeat against Atlético Madrid with a 3-1 loss at Liverpool.
PSV are winless in four CL home matches (W0-D2-L2). They can now remain winless in five home matches in a row for the first time in the Champions League.
PSV have failed to score in each of their last three CL matches and can remain goalless in four in a row for the second time, after a run of four matches without a goal from October 2001 - September 2002.
Only AEK (0) attempted fewer shots on target in the opening matchround than PSV (1).
No team attempted fewer passes (245) or completed fewer passes (176) than PSV on matchday 1.
PSV had only 25% ball possession in their 4-0 loss at Barcelona, fewest of all teams in the opening matchround.
With two goals and one assist, Luuk de Jong has been involved in three of PSV's last five CL home goals.
On 14 September 2010, De Jong made his CL debut in FC Twente's 2-2 home draw against Internazionale.
Trent Sainsbury played one Serie A match for Internazionale, as he featured in Inter's 5-2 home win over Udinese on 28 May 2017.
Internazionale
Internazionale came from behind to beat Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 in their opening match of this CL season. Matías Vecino scored a 90+2-minute winner at Stadio Giuseppe Meazza.
Inter have lost only one of their last six CL group stage matches (W4-D1-L1), a 2-1 home defeat against CSKA Moskva on 7 December 2011.
Inter are winless in their last seven away matches in all European competitions (W0-D3-L4), since a 1-0 win at Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk in the Europa League group stage on 18 September 2014.
Inter can remain winless in eight consecutive European away matches for the first time since September 1989 - September 1991 (W0-D3-L5).
Inter have lost their last four European away matches and can make it five in a row for the first time since a 10-match away losing streak from 1981-1984.
Inter have kept just one clean sheet in their last 14 CL matches, in the 1-0 away victory over OSC Lille on 18 October 2011.
Mauro Icardi has scored in each of his last three matches in all European competitions, after scoring just one goal in his 11 European appearances prior this run.
Icardi and Matías Vecino can both become the first players since Samuel Eto'o and Wesley Sneijder in 2010/11 to score for Inter in their opening two group stage matches of a CL campaign.
Vecino can become the second player from Uruguay, after Edinson Cavani, to score in his first two CL appearances.
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