Champions League Week 5 wrap: Aguero keeps Manchester City alive

Premier League champion Manchester City could only manage a mediocre two draws and two losses from its opening four Champions League games, but by some miracle of mathematics, the team is alive and well thanks to its usual saving grace: Sergio Aguero.

The Argentine forward has a knack for rescuing the Citizens when hopes look lost. Who could forget Aguero's injury time winner against QPR in 2012 that snatched the Premier League title away from Manchester United when the team was already celebrating at Sunderland's Stadium of Light?

Aguero flashed his clutch ability against Bayern Munich when he sealed another win for his side in injury time, scoring his third of the game to somehow keep City alive and well in Group E.

Bayern Munich has already sealed a first-place finish in the group, but City, AS Roma, and CSKA Moscow are all level on five points. This leaves Group E will several possible outcomes for the final matchday. UEFA's tiebreaker rules give first priority to the team that has the highest number of points earned against those in question and second priority to goal differential. If Bayern Munich win at home against CSKA, Manuel Pellegrini's side only needs a draw with goals scored to progress.

Messi's shatters Raul's record

He only needed one goal to do it, but Lionel Messi scored three against APOEL to smash Raul Gonzalez's all-time Champions League goal-scoring record of 71 goals. Messi has faced his fair share of criticism this season for not being able to maintain his otherwordly goal-scoring pace of the past, but a move to the wing in Luis Enrique's system to make room to Luis Suarez down the middle should share as much of the blame.

The Argentine made headlines over the weekend with another hat trick against Sevilla which earned him the La Liga all-time goalscoring record as well, breaking Telmo Zarra's 251-goal record.

With two hat tricks in two games, Messi looks like he's finally returning to his old self.

Monaco's juxtaposition

Leonardo Jardim probably didn't have a choice but to deploy defence-first tactics after James Rodriguez, and Radamel Falcao, AS Monaco's two stars on the other side of the pitch, left for Real Madrid and Manchester United in the summer.

To Monaco's credit, it's working.

The French side has only conceded one goal in five Champions League games, beating out Real Madrid and Chelsea for the competition's best defence. Ricardo Carvalho, 36, continues to roll back the years while marshalling the side's backline.

But remarkably, the team's offensive numbers are some of the worst in the tournament.

With Lucas Ocampos' solitary goal in Monaco's 1-0 victory over Bayer Leverkusen, the team scored only its second goal of the competition. Shakhtar Donetsk's Luiz Adriano, in comparison, is scoring 1.8 goals per game with nine goals in five games. Only APOEL has managed to score fewer goals.

Monaco is currently second in Group C on eight points. If the team shuts out Zenit in the final matchday, it'll be headed for the knockout stages where two-legged ties are often won with a single goal.

Liverpool walk alone

Not much else remains to be said about Liverpool's dire start to the season in the Premier League and in the Champions League. Sitting eighth in the Premier League with 14 points from 12 games, and third in the Champions League with four points from five games, Liverpool has effectively erased the fond memories of last year's Luis Suarez-inspired side and replaced them with returning nightmares of a time between 2009 and 2013 where mediocre mid-table finishes became the norm thanks to the decline of the squad assembled by Rafa Benitez.

With the loss of Suarez to Barcelona, Liverpool lost the one player the team often relied upon to singlehandedly win games. That loss was supposed to be softened with the $26.5 million addition of Mario Balotelli, but the sulking Italian has only scored two goals in 14 games.

Against Ludogorets Razgrad, the Reds forgot how to defend as well. Brendan Rodgers' side conceded at the beginning of the game and at the end of the game to one of the tournament's minnows, managing only a 2-2 draw in Bulgaria. Liverpool has not won a game in all competitions since a League Cup win against Swansea City on Oct. 28, and the team's continuation in the Champions League is now at stake. Liverpool will need nothing less than a victory in the final matchday against Basel to progress to the knockout stages.

Must-see Mexican

FC Porto wasn't doing much to deserve a lead against BATE Borisov until the individual talent of Hector Herrera made the difference. The Mexican stole possession in BATE's defensive zone and unleashed a swerving strike from outside the box to give Porto a 1-0 lead. Herrera would add two assists, setting up Jackson Martinez and Cristian Tello to seal a 3-0 victory.