Galatasaray’s notoriously hostile fans made plenty of noise from the start as they looked to intimidate Barca, but the visitors quickly settled into their stride and Dani Olmo was denied one-on-one by Ugurcan Cakir after six minutes.
The goalkeeper produced another big save 10 minutes later to thwart Anthony Gordon – who was making his first UCL start for the Blaugrana – before the stretching Olmo sent a diving header wide and Joao Cancelo saw a fierce shot parried away by Cakir.
Barca were dominant, so it was totally against the run of play when Aleksey Batrakov gave Galatasaray a 28th-minute lead with their first shot of the night.
The midfielder raced onto Rafael Leao’s cutback and fired home his maiden UCL goal via a deflection off Cancelo, duly extending Barcelona’s run without a clean sheet in the competition to 17 games.
Baris Alper Yilmaz thought he had doubled the lead six minutes later when he nodded into the net following a corner, but a VAR review deemed him offside.
The visitors wrestled back momentum as a result and equalised two minutes before half-time, as Cancelo curled into the far corner to score his first UCL goal since March 2024.
Gordon somehow volleyed Yamal’s delicious cross wide barely a minute after the restart, but Fermin Lopez made no mistake four minutes later as he headed home another exquisite centre from the Spain teenager to notch his fifth goal of the season.
Yamal was in the mood, and he claimed his 10th assist of the campaign across all competitions just three minutes later, producing an incredible piece of skill on the byline before squaring for Gordon to tuck home his first UCL goal for Barca.
Both managers responded by making a string of substitutions, and Karim Adeyemi fired the visitors 4-1 up just seven minutes after coming on with his second goal in as many UCL matches.
Adeyemi was twice denied in the closing stages, as Hansi Flick’s side extended their perfect start to the campaign and sent a message to their continental rivals ahead of next Tuesday’s huge league phase trip to holders Paris Saint-Germain.
Meanwhile, Galatasaray have now lost eight of their last 14 UCL matches (W5, D1) and remain without points in this season’s competition, with a visit to LOSC Lille next up on October 21st.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Lamine Yamal (Barcelona)