Alvaro Morata scored twice before two defensive mistakes helped Juventus to a 4-1 Champions League win at Ferencvaros on Wednesday as they bounced back from last week’s defeat by Barcelona.
he Serie A side were too slick for their spirited opponents, who are back in the group stage after a 25-year absence, and cantered home at a soggy Puskas Arena to go second in Group H with six points from three games. Ferencvaros have one point.
“Games can become easy only if you play well,” said Juventus captain Giorgio Chiellini. “In the first half we were a bit slow with possession, we raised our tempo in the second half and we managed to earn another important win.”
RB Leipzig fought back to beat Paris St Germain 2-1 at home in a pulsating Champions League Group H clash on Wednesday that kept them on course for a last-16 spot while putting the French side, who finished the game with nine men, in a precarious position.
Striker Alassane Plea scored a hat-trick as Borussia Moenchengladbach crushed their hosts Schakhtar Donetsk 6-0 on Tuesday to take over from them at the top of their group in the Champions League.
Glabdach, who conceded late equalisers in their previous group matches against Inter Milan and Real Madrid, scored four in the first half, with two coming from the 27-year-old Plea, to kill off the game and eventually earn one of the largest away wins of the competition.
They are now top of Group B on five points from three games, one point ahead of Shakhtar.
Real Madrid boosted their chances of reaching the Champions League knockout stages after a late winner by substitute Rodrygo gave them a 3-2 home victory over Inter Milan in an absorbing Group B clash on Tuesday.
The result left Real, winners of a record 13 titles in Europe’s premier club competition, level on four points with Shakhtar Donetsk, one point behind leaders Borussia Moenchengladbach and two ahead of bottom placed Inter.
Real had thrown away a two-goal lead and were flirting with a defeat which would have piled more pressure on manager Zinedine Zidane before their Brazilian duo of Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo combined to save the day.
The Italians were punished for their misses, however, as Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo, brought into the fray together by Zidane shortly before Inter’s equaliser, carved out the winner from a lightning fast break.
Vinicius Junior raced clear of his marker down the left flank and squared the ball back to Rodrygo, who beat Handanovic with an unstoppable shot into the top corner from 10 metres.
Inter are now under pressure halfway through the group stage to turn their fortunes around and will hope to have striker Romelu Lukaku back for the reverse fixture on Nov. 25 after the Belgium striker missed the match with a thigh injury.
Liverpool striker Diogo Jota netted his first hat-trick for the club as they thrashed Atalanta 5-0 with a blistering performance in the Champions League on Tuesday to go five points clear at the top of Group D after three straight wins.
Atalanta’s mauling was the worst home defeat ever suffered by an Italian side against an English team in European competition and means Liverpool will qualify for the last 16 with a victory in the reverse fixture on Nov. 25.
The victory put Liverpool, who won the Champions League in 2005 and 2019, top of the group with nine points from three games. Ajax Amsterdam are second with four, ahead of Atalanta on goal difference, after a 2-1 win at FC Midtjylland.
Ajax Amsterdam scored after 47 seconds as they shrugged off disrupted preparations to beat Denmark’s Midtjylland 2-1 away on Tuesday for their first win in Champions League Group D.
Ajax’s preparations had been severely disrupted as they were forced to leave behind key players, suspected of being infected with COVID-19, when they travelled to Denmark on Monday.
Ferran Torres, Gabriel Jesus and Joao Cancelo were on target as Manchester City made it three wins out of three in Champions League Group C with a 3-0 win over Olympiakos at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday. The result leaves City three points clear of Porto at the top of the group, and a single point in the return fixture on Nov. 25 would secure progress for City to the knockout stage.
Bayern Munich came from behind to crush RB Salzburg 6-2 with two goals from Robert Lewandowski on Tuesday, stretching their record winning run in the Champions League to 14 consecutive games and leading their group by five points after three games.
Porto beat Olympique de Marseille 3-0 in Group C on Tuesday, inflicting a record 12th consecutive defeat in the Champions League on the French club and leaving Andre Villas Boas’s team on the brink of elimination.
Lazio coach Simone Inzaghi said that his side had only 13 players available due to injuries and COVID-19 cases for their 1-1 away draw with Zenit St Petersburg.
In-form Erling Haaland scored twice as Borussia Dortmund surged to the top of their Champions League Group F with a comfortable 3-0 victory over hosts Club Brugge on Wednesday.
Sevilla forward Youssef En-Nesyri came off the bench to fire his side to a courageous 3-2 home win over Krasnodar in the Champions League on Wednesday as the Spaniards turned the game around with 10 men after captain Jesus Navas was sent off.
Barcelona earned a far from convincing 2-1 win at home to a depleted Dynamo Kyiv on Wednesday as Lionel Messi scored a penalty for the third Champions League game in a row with the Spaniards maintaining their winning start to the group stage.
