Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday launched their latest quest for UEFA Champions League success with a statement win over Real Madrid, while a late Atletico Madrid comeback foiled Juventus as Manchester City eased to victory in Ukraine.
French giants PSG have failed to make their mark in Europe, crashing out of the Champions League in the last 16 each of the past three years, despite huge sums of money spent by their Qatari owners.
With Neymar suspended and Kylian Mbappe and Edinson Cavani sidelined by injury, Angel di Maria stepped up in their absence by grabbing two first-half goals in a 3-0 triumph at the Parc des Princes.
Photo: Reuters
Thomas Meunier added the third late on as Madrid, who beat PSG on the way to lifting the trophy in 2016 and last year, were soundly beaten in their Group A opener, with Eden Hazard kept quiet on his full debut.
“There’s no message sent, but we dominated this game very well,” PSG captain Thiago Silva told RMC Sport. “We have to play like this all the time, in the league as well, with character and hunger.”
Real, the 13-time European champions, are still favorites to advance from a section that includes Club Brugge and Galatasaray, who drew 0-0 in Belgium, but the nature of the loss underscored the work that lies ahead for coach Zinedine Zidane.
“They were superior to us in everything they did, and in intensity, which annoys me the most,” the Frenchman said.
Diego Simeone’s Atletico clawed their way back from two goals down in the final 20 minutes to rescue a 2-2 draw at home to Juventus in Group D.
The anticipated clash between Cristiano Ronaldo and Joao Felix, the teenager touted as the heir to Ronaldo’s throne, took a back seat to a rousing Atletico comeback after second-half goals from Juan Cuadrado and Blaise Matuidi put Juve in control.
Stefan Savic nodded home from point-blank range to give Atletico hope and substitute Hector Herrera headed in a corner in the final minute to snatch a point.
“I think we played well, but we have a bitter taste in our mouth now because we felt we had the game in our hands,” Juventus boss Maurizio Sarri said.
Both sides trail Lokomotiv Moscow, who had a 2-1 win at Bayer 04 Leverkusen. Grzegorz Krychowiak and Dmitri Barinov scored for Lokomotiv either side of an own-goal by former Germany defender Benedikt Hoewedes.
Premier League champions City bounced back from defeat by Norwich City over the weekend with a comfortable 3-0 victory against Shakhtar Donetsk in Kharkiv, Ukraine.
Riyad Mahrez slammed home a rebound after Ilkay Gundogan hit the post, and the German international smacked in a second before Gabriel Jesus sealed the points on 76 minutes.
“When you win, the manager makes the right decisions, when you lose, the wrong decisions. We lost one game in eight months and we will not doubt who these players are. It is a joy to be their manager,” coach Pep Guardiola told BT Sport.
City are second to Dinamo Zagreb in Group C after the Croatian champions made it a night to forget for competition debutants Atalanta BC with a 4-0 rout.
Dinamo failed to score a single goal as they lost all six matches in their last group stage appearance in 2016-2017.
However, Marin Leovac gave them a 10th-minute lead and Mislav Orsic bagged a hat-trick as Dinamo got off to a dream start ahead of a trip to City on Oct. 2.
Bayern Munich needed late goals from Robert Lewandowski and Thomas Mueller to make sure of victory against Red Star Belgrade in Group D.
Kingsley Coman’s bullet header gave Bayern a first-half lead, but the German champions were forced to wait until the 80th minute for Lewandowski to end Red Star’s threat.
Substitute Mueller volleyed in a third in stoppage time.
Last year’s finalists, Tottenham Hotspur, blew a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 at Olympiakos.
Harry Kane’s penalty and a fine Lucas Moura strike put Spurs 2-0 up after 30 minutes in Greece, but Daniel Podence cut the deficit shortly before the break and Mathieu Valbuena leveled from the spot in the second half.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB