LONDON: An old Arsenal man, Serge Gnabry, returned to north London to haunt Tottenham as he scored four in Bayern Munich’s 7-2 demolition in UEFA Champions League Group B.

This was the biggest ever margin of defeat by an English team at home in European competition as Bayern’s superb finishing exacerbated Spurs’ troubled start to the season by punishing sloppy defending.

Heung-Min Son gave Spurs the lead in 12 minutes but Joshua Kimmich levelled three minutes later and Robert Lewandowski produced a brilliant turn and finish on the stroke of half-time.

Gnabry then scored twice in two minutes to see the Bavarians move into a commanding lead which Spurs reduced to 4-2 when Harry Kane dispatched a harsh penalty.

Gnabry completed his hat-trick seven minutes from time and, with Spurs reeling, Lewandowski claimed a fine sixth from a Philippe Coutinho flick before Gnabry added his fourth to complete the rout.

This was the first time Tottenham have conceded seven goals at home in any major competition and they became the first English side to concede seven goals in any European competition since losing 8-0 to FC Koln in the UEFA Intertoto Cup in July 1995.  The last time they conceded seven goals in any match was in December 1996 against Newcastle in the Premier League (1-7).

Spurs have only one point after two games and sit third in their group after Crvena Zvezda came from behind to beat Olympiakos 3-1 in Belgrade.
The Greek side led 1-0 when they had Yassine Benzia sent off just before the hour mark, and the Serbians took just five minutes to level – before breaking Olympiakos hearts with two goals in the last three minutes from Nemanja Milunovic and Richmond Boakye.
Spurs next face crucial back-to-back games against Red Star.

Real escape

In Group A Real Madrid had to come back from 2-0 down to grab a 2-2 draw at home to Club Brugge.

Dennis Bonaventure’s double gave the visitors a shock 2-0 advantage at half time, and the Belgians missed a huge chance to kill it off at 3-0 in the early stages of the second.

Sergio Ramos dragged Real Madrid back into the contest ten minutes after the interval, before the crucial minute of action just six minutes from time saw Ruud Vormer sent off for Brugge and Casemiro head the hosts level from the resulting free kick.

The Belgian side held out for the final few minutes with ten men to claim a famous point and leave Real Madrid without a win in three straight Champions League home games.

Sterling work

Raheem Sterling came off the bench to inspire a struggling Manchester City to a 2-0 Group C win over Dinamo Zagreb at the Etihad.

The in-form England man scored ten minutes after coming off the bench in the second half to help Premier League champions to finally break through against a well-drilled Croatian side.

Pep Guardiola’s side completely dominated the ball, having a whopping 81 percent possession and 16 shots in all, but they needed the new goal-scoring nous of Sterling to eventually get the ball in the back of the net.

Sterling netted just nine minutes after coming off the bench to the obvious relief of Guardiola on the touchline – with the Spaniard desperate to finally taste European glory again.

Sterling’s fellow substitute Phil Foden made an even quicker impact as he came off the bench in the 91st minute and duly doubled the lead in the fifth minute of stoppage time.

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