Bill Connelly Nov 5, 2026, 12:10 PM ET

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Bill Connelly is a writer for ESPN. He covers college football, soccer and tennis. He has been at ESPN since 2019.

It's getting ridiculous in the best possible way. With each passing year, seemingly as teams realize that the extended Champions League league phase offers plenty of leeway if they lose a game or two, the guardrails slip a little bit more.

In 2024-25, teams averaged 1.63 goals per game in the league phase, a robust amount but not dramatically off of what we see in domestic leagues. In 2025-26, it was 1.69.

This year, through four matchdays, teams are averaging 2.02 goals per match. On Wednesday alone, six of nine matches saw at least five combined goals scored.

There were three 3-2 matches, including Fenerbahce's comeback win over Liverpool and lovely back-and-forth away wins for Manchester City (over RB Leipzig) and Real Madrid (over AEK Athens).…