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Cristiano Ronaldo scored as Juventus marked Andrea Pirlo’s first match as head coach with a comfortable 3-0 win over Sampdoria in Serie A.

Sweden winger Dejan Kulusevski opened the scoring on his debut, with a calm finish into the bottom left corner.

And Leonardo Bonucci prodded in the second for Juve, who are chasing a 10th successive Scudetto.

Ronaldo, who had earlier hit the crossbar, rounded off the scoring late on from Aaron Ramsey’s pass.

Like Sunday’s other Serie A matches, a small number of supporters were at the season opener after the Italian government allowed up to 1,000 fans to attend matches for the first time since March.

Former Milan and Juventus midfielder Pirlo had no senior coaching experience before he was chosen to replace Maurizio Sarri in August, and only received his coaching badge last week.

However, this was a relatively comfortable introduction to his new role, with his side easing to victory against Claudio Ranieri’s team.

Liverpool were helped by Christensen’s moment of sheer panic that reduced Chelsea to 10 men right on the break – but they were head and shoulders ahead of a negative home team even before that crucial moment.

The champions dominated from the first whistle and it seemed only a matter of time before they scored, pinning Chelsea back in their own territory and probing for openings at will.

And when the breakthrough came, no-one deserved it more than Mane, now comfortable in world-class and willing to do the dirty work as well as apply the finishing touches.

Mane’s first goal was a superb header but in many ways he summed up what makes him the complete attacker with his second, reacting with fury at giving the ball away before chasing down Kepa.

The Senegal forward’s pace forced the error from a goalkeeper who does not necessarily need forcing into errors and effectively finished the contest with Liverpool’s second.

It was all so easy for Liverpool after that, Thiago easing his way in as a substitute although there will be a concern about yet another injury for captain Henderson, who went off at half-time.

Lionel Messi scored twice for Barcelona in a 3-1 pre-season friendly win over Girona on Wednesday.

Messi, 33, returned to training last week after failing to force a transfer away from the club.

He struck two long-range goals, the second taking a deflection on its way in.

He was also involved in the opener, playing in Francisco Trincao to cross for Philippe Countinho to score, before going off after a hour.

Barcelona are due to start their league campaign on 26 or 27 September against Villarreal.

Messi, Barcelona’s all-time leading goalscorer, believed he had a clause in his contract which would allow him to leave for free and did not begin pre-season training.

Barcelona and La Liga insisted that clause was no longer valid – with any club wishing to buy him required to pay a release clause of 700m euros (£624m) – and Messi returned to training after saying he would not take the club to court.

He also featured in Saturday’s friendly win over Gimnastic de Tarragona.

Earlier on Wednesday, La Liga president Javier Tebas said he was pleased Messi had stayed at Barcelona.

Barcelona used 20 players in Wednesday’s game at the club’s training centre but Uruguayan forward Luis Suarez and Chilean midfielder Arturo Vidal did not feature.

Julian Draxler’s injury-time winner ended Paris St-Germain’s losing start to the Ligue 1 season against Metz – despite the absence of the suspended Neymar.

Reigning champions PSG had lost their opening two league games for the first time since 1984-85 and had not lost three league games in a row since 2010.

Thomas Tuchel’s side had Abdou Diallo sent off after 65 minutes at the Parc des Princes, but German midfielder Draxler’s 93rd-minute header claimed victory for the 10 men.

Tuchel was without the services of world record signing Neymar, who was among five players sent off following an injury-time brawl against bitter rivals Marseille on Sunday.

Brazil forward Neymar has since received a two-match ban after punching Marseille defender Alvaro Gonzalez, whom the 28-year-old claims racially abused him. The French football authorities are to investigate his accusation. Gonzalez has denied Neymar’s claim.

With Diallo’s dismissal – a second booking for pulling Ibrahima Niane’s shirt – PSG have now received four red cards in their last two Ligue 1 games – as many as in their previous 62 combined.

The hosts welcomed back goalkeeper Keylor Navas, defender Marquinhos and striker Mauro Icardi after the trio were among seven players to test positive for coronavirus.

But it was former Real Madrid and Manchester United winger Angel di Maria who shone on another frustrating night for the hosts, who had suffered three successive 1-0 losses since their defeat by Bayern Munich in August’s Champions League final.

Di Maria created numerous opportunities for his team-mates and was denied by Metz goalkeeper Alexandre Oukidja at close range before eventually forcing Oukidja to parry his cross into Draxler’s path at the death.

PSG – winners of seven of the past eight Ligue 1 titles – sit 15th after three matches, four points behind early leaders Rennes.