On the opening night of group play in the UEFA Champions League, it was tough sledding for the Manchester clubs as both City and United stumbled out of the gate. Below is a recap of all the action from around Europe.
Manchester City 1-2 Juventus -- MORE
Manchester City has yet to lose and Juventus has yet to win in league play, but none of that mattered today in the Champions League as the Citizens fell 2-1 at home. City led with 20 minutes to play, but late goals from Mario Mandzukic and Alvaro Morata buried Pellegrini’s men in a stunning result, as Manchester City’s struggles in Europe continue.
PSV Eindhoven 2-1 Manchester United -- MORE
Another Manchester club that led 1-0 but fell 2-1 is United, as Louis van Gaal’s men were defeated by the defending Dutch champions. Memphis Depay gave the Red Devils the lead with a pretty goal against his former club, but PSV climbed back in front of a raucous home crowd to dampen United’s return to the Champions League. Making things even worse, Luke Shaw suffered a broken leg and will likely miss the rest of the season for United.
Real Madrid 4-0 Shakhtar Donetsk -- MORE
Cristiano Ronaldo...ever heard of him? After scoring five goals over the weekend in Real’s La Liga match, Ronaldo took it easy today and scored just a hat trick in a 4-0 win over Ukraine’s Shakhtar Donetsk. Karim Benzema opened the scoring for Real, and after Shakhtar was sent to ten men, Ronaldo buried three more. Ronaldo’s performance temporarily broke his tie with Lionel Messi as the leading goalscorer in Champions League history with 80 goals.
[ MORE: Champions League standings ]
Paris Saint-Germain 2-0 Malmo
Angel di Maria scored his first goal for PSG in the fourth minute as the Parisians cruised to a comfortable win over Swedish champions Malmo. Di Maria’s tally was his first club goal since January, when he scored for Manchester United against Yeovil Town. Edinson Cavani added another after the break, but circle the date for the return leg in Malmo. Zlatan Ibrahimovic will travel back to his homeland to the club where he started his professional career.
Galatasaray 0-2 Atletico Madrid
Atletico survived a tricky trip to Turkey as an Antoine Greizmann brace led his side to a 2-0 win over Galatasaray. The French international scored both his goals in less than ten minutes in the first half, and Diego Simeone’s side held off some late pressure from the Turkish hosts.
Sevilla 3-0 Borussia Monchengladbach
Sevilla completed a perfect day for Spanish sides, as teams from La Liga went a perfect three-for-three on the opening day of group play. Monchengladbach has gotten off to a brutal start in the Bundesliga with four losses through four matches, and their losing ways continued in a poor performance in Seville. Sevilla had three penalties in the match, with Kevin Gameiro scoring his first and hitting the crossbar on his second before Ever Benega buried the third attempt. Yevhen Konoplyanka would add an insurance goal late in the match.
[ RELATED: Three things we learned from Manchester City’s collapse vs. Juventus ]
Wolfsburg 1-0 CSKA Moscow
Julian Draxler was brought to Wolfsburg to replace Kevin de Bruyne, and the speedy winger scored his first goal for the club today, which ended up being the game winner against CSKA Moscow. Moscow has been dominant domestically as they sit atop the Russian Premier League, but failed to create many chances against their German opposition.
Benfica 2-0 Astana
Kazakhstan’s FC Astana was one of the surprise team’s to make it this far, becoming the first side from Kazakhstan to reach the Champions League group stage. However, their debut didn’t go as planned as Portuguese champions Benfica took all three points with a 2-0 win. It was far from convincing from Benfica, but a win was expected from Rui Vitoria’s side as Astana should struggle to take any points in Group C.
Wednesday’s UCL schedule
Chelsea vs. Maccabi Tel-Aviv
Dinamo Zagreb vs. Arsenal
Roma vs. Barcelona
Olympiacos vs. Bayern Munich
Bayer Leverkusen vs. BATE Borisov
Dynamo Kyiv vs. Porto
Valencia vs. Zenit St. Petersburg
Gent vs. Lyon
All matches scheduled for 2:45 p.m. ET kickoff