Paris Saint-Germain defeated Liverpool 2-1 at the Parc des Princes on Wednesday to put itself in a great position to qualify for the Champions League Round of 16. Liverpool, meanwhile, must now defeat Napoli at Anfield on Dec. 11 to have any chance of progressing. 

In the end, Liverpool’s vaunted attack only generated one shot on target, and PSG’s attacking trident of Neymar, Kylian Mbappé and Edinson Cavani thoroughly outshone Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mané on the night.

While most of Europe (but not the U.S.) was fixated on PSG-Liverpool on Wednesday, Lionel Messi was creating his usual magic in the Netherlands. 

Barcelona failed to score in the first hour against PSV Eindhoven, which had just one point through four Champions League matches coming into Wednesday. Then Messi took over and before you knew it the Blaugrana had a 2-1 victory. 

Thierry Henry finally got his first win as Monaco manager over the weekend, edging Caen in Ligue 1.

Back in the Champions League on Wednesday, it was more of the same for the Arsenal legend turned coach.

Atlético Madrid scored less than two minutes into the match and it was 2-0 in the 24th minute through a lovely finish from Antoine Griezmann. But what will give Henry and his side nightmares was the run by Ángel Correa to set up the second goal, one that dumped center back Jemerson to the floor with frightening ease.

Jose Mourinho likes to call himself the Special One and pump up his accomplishments. But right now, he’s just the Lucky One. 

He’s lucky to have David De Gea in goal making otherworldly saves. He’s lucky to not have VAR in the Champions League or Premier League, helping his club score late goals. And he’s lucky that water bottles are not sentient beings who fight back.

Much like the Imperial AT-ST Walker trod across the Endor forest floor, crushing the skulls of small Ewoks beneath its step, so is the Juventus Galactic Empire squeezing the life out of its opponents faces. 

We’re only a third of the way through the season, but an eight-point lead in Serie A feels pretty unassailable for the back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back Italian champions, and Tuesday's 1-0 win over Valencia in Turin at Allianz Stadium secured passage to the Champions League Round of 16 for the fifth straight season.

Real Madrid has had its ups and downs — mostly downs — this season since the departure of what’s-his-name. Fortunately for Los Blancos, their biggest competition in the Champions League group stage is having an equally tough go of it this season, which was perfectly embodied by a pitiful AS Roma miss from close range on Tuesday in Rome.

Arjen Robben went some way toward saving the job of Bayern Munich manager Niko Kovač (for now) while simultaneously getting Benfica manager Rui Vitória sacked after giving his side an early lead in the Champions League on Tuesday.

With both sides struggling mightily domestically (Bayern’s fifth in the Bundesliga; Benfica’s fourth in the Primeira Liga), the scrutiny on both managers this week had been intense.