James Milner has more than stayed the distance

Luckily for Manchester City, the bloated Champions League format means that opening group games can hardly be regarded as critically important, never mind ‘must win’, but even if the competition couldn’t ever hope to hit the ground running the way the World Cup did in Russia, this week’s action did see some of football’s global superstars exhibiting varying degrees of luminosity — from dull to blinding — in their attempts to twist again like they did last summer.

While Paul Pogba rolled back the months in the service of Manchester United, Luka Modric and his Real Madrid team-mates showed there is indeed life after Ronaldo, something Juventus also found themselves obliged to demonstrate, albeit in rather more unexpected and controversial circumstances.

Meanwhile, Lionel Messi put his summertime blues behind him as only he can, his sumptuous hat-trick just the latest ringing rebuke from the world’s greatest player to all those recurring and still premature obituaries.