MADRID: Cristiano Ronaldo made it eight goals in two games in four days with the hat-trick which inspired Real Madrid’s 4-0 Champions League opener against Shakhtar Donetsk in Group A.
Ronaldo scored five goals last Saturday in Madrd’s 6-0 thrashing of Espanyol in Barcelona in the Spanish league and he followed up with three more, including two penalties. The Portugal superstar’s spot kicks came came in the 55th and 63rd minutes with his third and Madrid’s fourth in the 81st.
Karim Benzema had opened the scoring for Madrid after half an hour and Shakhtar were reduced to 10 men five minutes into the second half – with the score ‘still’ only 1-0 – when Taras Stepanenko was sent off after a second yellow card.
The other Group A tie saw Paris Saint-Germain beat Malmo 2-0 at the Parc des Princes with strikes from Madrid old boy Angel Di Maria (four minutes) and Edinson Cavani (61).
Antoine Griezmann struck twice in the first half as Atletico Madrid made an ideal start to their Group C campaign with a 2-0 victory at Galatasaray.
The France forward fired Atletico in front after 18 minutes and he doubled their lead seven minutes later by poking home Diego Godin’s headed knock down.
Benfica opened their Group C campaign with a 2-0 win over Kazakh new boysAstana in Lisbon.
Astana – a club only founded six years ago – became the first Kazakh side to play in the group stages of the Champions League but second-half goals from Nicolas Gaitan (51) and Kostas Mitroglou (62), the Greek striker on loan from Fulham, gave Benfica victory.
Manchester United suffered a double blow on another bad night for English football. United fell to a surprise 2-1 defeat to PSV Eindhoven in a Group B game overshadowed by a terrible first-half injury to Luke Shaw.
The England left-back suffered an horrific suspected broken leg after Mexican defender Hector Moreno caught him with a late two-footed challenge. Shaw was carried off on a stretcher while receiving oxygen eight minutes later.
United did take the lead when Memphis Depay struck a fine goal against his old club but Moreno equalised on the stroke of half-time and Luciano Narsingh grabbed a 57th-minute winner before Louis van Gaal’s side ran out of attacking ideas.
Manchester City fared little better as they surrendered a lead to lose their Champions League Group D opener 2-1 to Juventus, the Italian champions’ first win in England since 1996.
City looked in control at the Etihad Stadium after taking a controversial 57th-minute lead when Giorgio Chiellini turned the ball into his own net under pressure from Vincent Kompany.
City passed up several chances to double their lead and last season’s finalists turned the tie on its head through Mario Mandzukic’s 70th-minute equaliser and an Alvaro Morata stunner 11 minutes from time.
City’s next Champions League test in two weeks’ time is away to Borussia Monchengladbach and the German side will be seeking to recover from a 3-0 defeat at Sevilla.
The Spaniards were awarded three second-half penalties, converting two of them, after a goalless first period.
Kevin Gameiro scored one and missed one before earning another spot-kick which was converted by Ever Banega. Ukraine winger Yevhen Konoplyanka wrapped up the victory six minutes from time with his first goal for the club.
United’s next opponents Wolfsburg – the German side visit Old Trafford on September 30 – will head to Manchester with three points already in the bag after their 1-0 home victory over CSKA Moscow.
Julian Draxler, signed as a replacement for Manchester City’s new signing Kevin De Bruyne last month, settled the contest five minutes from half-time after CSKA Moscow goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev had saved his initial effort.
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