Blowouts highlight opening night of Champions League
As the Champions League opened with a series of one-sided games, Jose Mourinho was blunt. For the Manchester United manager, it wasn’t the Champions League at all.
“For the Real Madrids, Barcelonas and Bayerns, the Champions League starts in February. Now is just the warming up,” Mourinho said after a routine win for his Manchester United team over Swiss club Basel. “Let’s qualify, let’s make the points to qualify for the knockout phase. When we do that, let’s enjoy playing against the big guys.”
United, Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich all cruised to easy wins on Tuesday, scoring 17 goals between them and conceding none.
GROUP A
Manchester United’s players didn’t have to exert themselves too much to see off Swiss side Basel 3-0, as Romelu Lukaku scored his sixth goal in six United appearances. Marouane Fellaini and Marcus Rashford’s goals completed the win for United.
In a worrying sight for United fans and coach Mourinho, captain Paul Pogba hobbled off with a possible left hamstring injury.
In Lisbon, Benfica let slip a 1-0 lead to lose 2-1 to CSKA Moscow, with substitute Timur Zhamaletdinov scoring the winning goal four minutes into his Champions League debut.
GROUP B
Two woefully uncompetitive games saw Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich post easy wins.
PSG’s expensively assembled forward line of Neymar, Kylian Mbappe and Edinson Cavani ran riot against Celtic in a 5-0 win, scoring four between them. A Celtic own goal ensured a night to forget for the Scottish champion.
Bayern seemed rustier in its 3-0 win over Anderlecht, leading by just one goal at halftime despite Anderlecht having a man sent off in the 11th minute.
GROUP C
Davide Zappacosta’s stunning long-distance goal from the right flank impressed the Stamford Bridge faithful, but Chelsea needed nothing special to thrash Azerbaijan’s Qarabag 6-0.
A poor Qarabag defence also conceded goals from Michy Batshuayi, Pedro Rodriguez, Cesar Azpilicueta and Tiemoue Bakayoko. There was also an own goal by Maksim Medvedev.
Atletico Madrid sees itself as a contender to win the Champions League, but poor finishing made it look well short of that standard in a 0-0 draw with Roma.
GROUP D
Lionel Messi started the new European season with yet another game-winning performance for Barcelona, while the Catalan club’s record signing Ousmane Dembele made his debut.
Still, Barcelona’s 3-0 win was slight revenge for its loss to Juventus in last year’s quarter-finals.
Sporting Lisbon won 3-2 at Greek side Olympiakos.