1 month ago
10
AP:
KARIM ADEYEMI starred as Borussia Dortmund ran riot against Celtic while Barcelona and Manchester City claimed their first wins in the restructured Champions League yesterday.
Adeyemi scored a first-half hat trick as Dortmund routed Celtic 7-1 at home. It was the second big win from a German team in the competition after Bayern Munich’s 9-2 bashing of Dinamo Zagreb on the first matchday.
Robert Lewandowski got Barcelona off the mark as the Spanish giants eased to a 5-0 home win over Swiss team Young Boys, while his former teammate İlkay Gündoğan got City off to a 4-0 win at Slovan Bratislava. Erling Haaland scored his 42nd goal in his 41st Champions League game.
City were held 0-0 by Inter Milan in their opening game, while Barca responded to its 2-1 loss at Monaco, the team’s first defeat under new coach Hansi Flick.
Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal outclassed his former team, Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) 2-0, with Kai Havertz and Bukayo Saka scoring in the first half for the Gunners.
PSG coach Luis Enrique’s gamble on leaving Ousmane Dembélé out did not pay off.
Arteta enjoyed a successful 18-month loan spell at PSG while still a teenager at Barcelona.
Though Dortmund appear to have adapted to the new competition format very well – last season’s beaten finalists have 10 goals from two games after starting with a 3-0 win over Club Brugge – their fans made their opposition to the reforms clear with a huge tifo slamming UEFA.
This season UEFA changed the structure of Europe’s premier competition to add four more teams. The group stage was scrapped for a league system with each of the now 36 participating teams playing eight opponents once in a first phase of the competition.
UEFA claimed the changes would ensure more evenly matched games, but yesterday’s results – the big wins for Barca, City and Dortmund – appear to belie that claim.
More big wins
There were more big wins yesterday with Inter Milan defeating Red Star Belgrade 4-0, and tournament debutants Brest routing Salzburg 4-0 away for their second win in as many games in Europe’s premier competition.
Iran forward Mehdi Taremi struck a penalty past Israel and Red Star goalkeeper Omri Glazer and set up two more goals for Inter hours after his country launched a barrage of missiles at Israel.
Senegalese forward Abdallah Sima netted twice for Brest to take his tally to three goals in two games after he scored in the French team’s tournament-opening 2-1 win over Austrian champions Sturm Graz.
In other games yesterday, Bayer Leverkusen defeated AC Milan 1-0 in Germany thanks a well-worked move finished by Victor Boniface.
Daniel Bragança scored late to earn Sporting Lisbon a 1-1 draw at PSV Eindhoven.
Kaan Kairinen’s brilliant free kick was enough for Prague to draw 1-1 at Stuttgart.
Stuttgart fans displayed a huge choreography saying “Back in Europe” behind one of the goals. It was the German team’s first Champions League match at home since a 1-1 draw with Barcelona in February 2010.
RB Salzburg 0-4 Brest
Stuttgart 1-1 Sparta Praha
Dortmund 7-1 Celtic
PSV 1-1 Sporting
Bratislava 0-4 Man City
Barca 5-0 Young Boys
Leverkusen 1-0 Milan
Inter 4-0 Crvena Zvezda
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