Paris Saint-Germain's Spanish forward #09 Ferran Torres (C) celebrates with Paris Saint-Germain's French forward #10 Ousmane Dembele (L), Paris Saint-Germain's Moroccan defender #02 Achraf Hakimi (2nd L) and Paris Saint-Germain's Spanish midfielder #27 Dro Fernandez (R) after scoring his team fourth goal during the UEFA Champions League, league phase, matchday 1, football match between Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and Slovan Bratislava at the Parc des Princes Stadium in Paris on September 9, 2026. (Photo by FRANCK FIFE / AFP)
Paris, France: Ferran Torres scored a hat-trick and Ousmane Dembele also starred as Paris Saint-Germain began their quest to win a third consecutive Champions League title by thrashing Slovan Bratislava 6-1 at the Parc des Princes on Wednesday.
Last year's Ballon d'Or winner Dembele had bagged a brace by the midway point in the first half in the French capital, and then set up Spain's World Cup final hero Torres to make it 3-0 by the interval.
Torres, a close-season signing from Barcelona, added two more just after the restart to complete his hat-trick, with Suleiman Camara pulling one back for the Slovakian champions and Fabian Ruiz sealing PSG's win.
"It is impossible, you cannot expect to score a hat-trick," Torres told broadcaster Canal Plus when asked if he imagined such an outcome.
"The only thing that we knew before the game was that we had to play with the right intensity, press when we lost the ball, and we did that really well. We did a really good game."
The French club are bidding to follow in the footsteps of the Real Madrid side of 2016 to 2018 and become just the second team in the history of the modern Champions League to win the trophy three years running.
Real, Ajax and Bayern Munich were the only teams to achieve that feat in the days of the old European Cup.
PSG's next games will be against teams hoping to end their reign, with a trip to Manchester City and a home clash with Barcelona coming in October -- Torres is a former player of both clubs.
"It is the Champions League, we always play against tough teams, but we have to be focused first in Ligue 1 because we didn't start in the right way," he added, with PSG yet to win a domestic game this season.
