Holders Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain were the biggest winners in the Champions League on Wednesday, as Real Madrid and both Manchester clubs also recorded important victories.
Frenchman Franck Ribery scored a brace — including one from the penalty spot — while David Alaba, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Mario Goetze were also on target as Pep Guardiola’s Bayern romped to a 5-0 home win against Czech champions Viktoria Plzen for their eighth consecutive win in the competition.
The German outfit are at the top of Group D, three points clear of Manchester City, the Premier League club who claimed a potentially crucial 2-1 win at CSKA Moscow earlier in the day.
Photo: AFP
City had fallen behind on a difficult pitch at the Arena Khimki in Moscow when Zoran Tosic lobbed Joe Hart, but Sergio Aguero netted twice before the interval to turn the game on its head.
However, their win was marred by reports of racist chanting from the home sections of the stadium directed towards City’s Ivorian midfielder Yaya Toure.
“It is unbelievable and very, very sad. We want to stop that and UEFA have to be strong, maybe close the stadium,” Toure said.
Photo: AFP
PSG recorded their biggest-ever European away win as they took RSC Anderlecht apart in Brussels, with Zlatan Ibrahimovic scoring four times and Edinson Cavani once in a 5-0 victory.
Ibrahimovic’s evening featured a hat-trick in the space of 19 first-half minutes, with his third goal a ferocious volley from 27m that brought many of the home supporters to their feet. The striker now has nine goals in his past four games in all competitions.
“Scoring four goals in a game doesn’t happen every day,” said Ibrahimovic, who was touched when the Anderlecht fans applauded his marvelous third goal. “It was incredible, fantastic. I had goose pimples. It is a great honor.”
Photo: AFP
With Oscar Cardozo’s late equalizer earning SL Benfica a 1-1 draw at home against Olympiakos in Group C’s other, rain-hit, game, PSG are now five points clear at the top and in a position to clinch qualification when they meet Anderlecht at home next.
Despite Ibrahimovic’s feats, the competition’s top scorer is Cristiano Ronaldo, who took his tally for the season to seven with a brace in Real Madrid’s 2-1 win against Juventus at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Ronaldo opened the scoring in the fourth minute and then scored what proved to be the winner just before the half-hour mark following an equalizer by Juve’s Spain striker Fernando Llorente.
Juve could not get back into the game after Giorgio Chiellini was sent off early in the second half.
Carlo Ancelotti’s side top Group B, while Juve are still without a win and lost second place to Galatasaray, for whom Felipe Melo, Wesley Sneijder and Didier Drogba all scored in a 3-1 victory over FC Copenhagen.
Meanwhile, Manchester United remained in control of Group A — if only just — after a second-minute own-goal by Inigo Martinez gave them a 1-0 home win against Real Sociedad at Old Trafford.
United are one point clear of Bayer Leverkusen, who leapfrogged Shakhtar Donetsk into second place by beating the Ukrainians 4-0 in Germany.
Stefan Kiessling made headlines at the weekend with his now infamous “phantom goal” in the Bundesliga and on Wednesday scored twice on either side of a Simon Rolfes penalty and Sidney Sam’s effort to give Sami Hyypia’s men a fine victory.
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