Mohamed Salah helped maintain Liverpool’s perfect Champions League record on Tuesday, while defending champions Real Madrid recovered from their defeat at Anfield to beat in-form Italian side Atalanta.

Elsewhere, struggling Paris Saint-Germain claimed a crucial victory in Salzburg, while Bayer Leverkusen saw off Inter Milan to move into second place.

Aston Villa continued their brilliant performance with a 3-2 win over Leipzig to finish third in their first appearance in the continent’s elite club competition in 41 years.

The first eight teams qualify directly for the round of 16, places nine to 24 advance to a play-off round.

In Spain, Salah’s 63rd-minute penalty against stubborn debutants Girona proved crucial, taking the Premier League leaders’ tally to six from six in the revamped format of Europe’s flagship club competition.

Under new coach Arne Slot, Liverpool are almost certain to reach the round of 16.

“If you ask me after all six games, I’m really happy with all the results… (but) I’m far from happy with the performance tonight,” Slot told reporters in Girona.

“(We had) little control over the game, maybe the second half was a little better, but then I try to think positive.”

Salah sent Paulo Gazzaniga the wrong way with his 50th Champions League goal, drawing level with Filippo Inzaghi as Egypt’s 10th-highest goalscorer of all time in the competition.

The winger’s contract expires at the end of the season but his 16 goals in all competitions were crucial to Liverpool’s excellent first half of the season.

While Liverpool face two rounds of the league stage early next year, Europe’s kings Real Madrid, who lost 2-0 to Liverpool in their last game, still have work to do to ensure their place in the knockout stages .

Kylian Mbappe gave Real a 10th-minute lead before limping off injured at Atalanta. His goal was canceled out by Charles de Ketelaere’s penalty in extra time of the first half.

– Calm your nerves –

Real coach Carlo Ancelotti fielded Vinicius Junior for the first time since his thigh injury last month. The Brazilian had already put Real back on top an hour earlier and Jude Bellingham was also on the scoresheet in a 3-2 win over the Serie A leaders.

The hard-fought victory lifted Real to 18th place with nine points and may have helped calm the 15-time European champions’ nerves ahead of games against Salzburg and Brest in January.

PSG got their stuttering season back on track with a much-needed 3-0 away defeat in Salzburg.

The French champions went into this encounter in 25th place with just four points and three goals scored after five games.

They go into their last two league games in provisional 24th place – the last place for the play-offs before Wednesday’s games.

Bayern defeated Ukrainian club Shakhtar Donetsk 5-1 in Gelsenkirchen. With a 1-0 win, Leverkusen became the first team to score against Inter in this year’s competition, moving them five points behind Liverpool at the top of the league.

Another notable performance on Matchday 6 came on the Brittany coast, where modest French Ligue 1 side Brest suffered a 1-0 defeat to former European champions PSV Eindhoven.

This placed the Atlantic Port City Club in fifth place in its first ever appearance on the European football rankings.

In other games, Celtic and Dinamo Zagreb remained in contention for the knockout stages after a boring 0-0 draw, and Club Brugge beat Sporting 2-1.

The main games on Wednesday include Manchester City against Juventus and Barcelona against Borussia Dortmund.

No./Pb