The goal machines of Bayern Munich, Chelsea and Shakhtar Donetsk cranked into top gear on Tuesday as the Champions League captivated its continental audience with a record 40 goals in one eight-game night.
Champions League: Ruthless Bayern destroy Roma; Adriano hits five
Champions League: Neymar, Messi guide Barca to win over Ajax
Bayern, who humbled Roma 7-1, Chelsea, who beat Maribor 6-0, and Shakhtar, who enjoyed a 7-0 win at Bate Borisov, contributed 20 between them on an evening to forget for defenders and goalkeepers alike.
Ukraine's Shakhtar became the first team to score six times in the first half of a Champions League match, and their victory was the joint-best for an away side.
Shakhtar's Brazilian striker Luiz Adriano became the first player to score four before halftime - and at 17 minutes he now holds the competition record for the quickest four-goal tally.
He added another late on to join Lionel Messi as the only players to have netted five times in a Champions League outing.
Messi scored once in Barcelona's 3-1 victory over Ajax to pull level with Cristiano Ronaldo on 69 Champions League goals, two behind all-time leading scorer Raul.
Chelsea's win against Maribor was their record victory in the Champions League.
In another high-scoring contest, Schalke beat Sporting 4-3.
I was victim of racist chants, says five-goal Adriano
Luiz Adriano, who scored five goals in Shakhtar Donetsk's record-tying 7-0 Champions League win at BATE Borisov on Tuesday, said he was the victim of racist chanting from a section of the crowd.
"I heard rude abuse...racist ones," the Brazilian marksman was quoted as saying on Shakhtar's website.
"Supporters behaved improperly and that is why I am disappointed and feel resentment. It was an ugly act from their side."
On a record-breaking night, Luiz Adriano became the first player in the history of the competition to score four goals in the first half.
He also joined Barcelona's Lionel Messi as the only players to hit five goals in a Champions League game.
Shakhtar's 6-0 halftime lead created a new mark for the competition and the margin of victory equalled the best away from home set by Olympique Marseille when they triumphed 7-0 at MSK Zilina in 2010.
Ukrainians Shakhtar are now second in Group H on five points, two behind leaders Porto who beat Athletic Bilbao 2-1.
BATE are third with three points from three matches while Bilbao have one.
Luiz Adriano scored in the 28th, 37th, 40th, 44th and 82nd minutes -- two of his strikes coming from penalties.
"I am excited that my record helped the team. It was a beautiful and historic victory," he said.
We need to do better, says Guardiola after Bayern hit seven
Bayern Munich coach Pep Guardiola, never easy to please, said after his team's 7-1 demolition of AS Roma that the Bundesliga champions can still do better.
"We have a few things to improve and one of them is that we gave Roma too many chances at the start of the second half," he told Sky Sport Italia.
Guardiola recognised that the game was atypical after Bayern scored five goals in the first 35 minutes on their way to their European record away win which left them top of Group E with maximum points.
"This game is an exception, an incident," he said. "It's not the difference between the two teams, we will see that in two weeks.
"We got a quick goal and that relaxed us, then we got another. Rome are a team who always play well, but we were very aggressive, made the right decisions and found space."
His opposite number Rudi Garcia took responsibility for the disaster.
"It was a technical collapse, not a mental one," said the Frenchman, whose last match against Bayern ended in a 6-1 defeat when he was coach of French club Lille two seasons ago.
"The first person to make a mistake was myself. I got the strategy wrong. In the second half, we showed some pride and would have scored more goals if it hadn't been for their goalkeeper."
"Bayern have showed that they are stronger than us. We were spectators at the match, we should have been more aggressive and compact," he added.
"We need to accept this defeat which shows how far we have to go to get close to the world's best teams. We can still qualify from this group, but not playing like this."
Midfielder Daniele De Rossi said the difference between the sides was not as big as the scoreline suggested.
