Sports

Bayern, Man City, Liverpool win; Real Madrid stumble

Sports Desk, Oct 21 (efe-epa).- Bayern Munich began the defense of their Champions League title Wednesday by routing Atletico Madrid 4-0, while Manchester City rolled 3-1 over Porto, Real Madrid fell short in a 3-2 loss to Shakhtar Donetsk and Liverpool eked out a 1-0 victory against Ajax.

Atalanta, who reached the quarterfinals last season in their Champions League debut, thrashed Midtjylland 4-0 to go top of Group D by virtue of a better goal difference than Liverpool.

Olympiacos edged Olympic Marseille 1-0 on a goal in stoppage time and Wednesday’s other two contests, Lokomotiv Moscow vs. RB Salzburg and Borussia Mönchengladbach, ended in draws.

In Munich, Kingsley Coman led the title-holders with a brace against Atletico, who also conceded goals to Leon Goretzka and Correntin Tolisso.

Bayern took sole possession of first place in Group A with 3 points, followed by Lokomotiv and Salzburg with 1 apiece.

Eder staked the visitors to a 1-0 lead in the 19th minute at Red Bull Arena. Dominik Szoboszlai equalized for the home side in the final minute of the first half and Salzburg pulled ahead early in the second half on a goal by Zlatko Junozovic.

Lokomotiv’s Vitaly Lisakovich scored in the 75th minute and the Russian side hung on to come away with a point.

Shakhtar lead Group B after their stunning upset of Real Madrid, which marked the first time in the Zinedine Zidane era that the Blancos have lost two in a row at home.

The hosts had a disastrous first half, as Tete and Manor Solomon scored for the Ukrainian side and Rafael Varane gave up an own goal.

Real Madrid showed signs of a comeback in the second half and the deficit stood at 3-2 with 30 minutes left thanks to goals by Luka Modric and Vinicius Jr.

But Shakhtar battened down the hatches and a Blancos equalizer in stoppage time was disallowed for an offside.

Inter will also be disappointed after managing only a 2-2 draw with Mönchengladbach in Milan, where Romelu Lukaku gave the Nerazzurri the lead four minutes into the second half.

Rami Bensebaini converted from the spot in the 63rd minute to bring Gladbach level and Jonas Hofmann made it 2-1 for the German squad with six minutes left in regulation. Lukaku scored in the 90th minute to salvage a point for Inter.

In Group C, Luis Diaz put visiting Porto up 1-0 in the 14th minute, but Man City evened the score in the 20th as Sergio Agüero converted from the spot.

The match remained deadlocked 1-1 until the 65th minute, when Ilkay Gündogan scored. Ferran Torres got a goal seven minutes later to make the final 3-1.

Ahmed Nahgoub’s goal in the 91st minute allowed Olympiacos to top Marseille and go level on points with City.

Liverpool, the 2020 Champions League winners, limped into Amsterdam’s Johan Cruyff Arena with a makeshift backline amid injuries to Virgil van Dijk and Joel Matip.

An own goal by Ajax’s Nicolas Tagliafico in the 35th minute turned out to be enough for the Reds to win.

Danish club Midtjylland got a rude welcome to the Champions League from Atalanta, who led 3-0 at the break on goals by Duvan Zapata, Alejandro Dario Gomez and Luis Muriel.

Aleksei Miranchuk added a fourth goal for the Italian squad in the 88th minute. EFE

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