Champions League: Juventus stuns City with two late goals
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND— Juventus cast aside its domestic woes by coming from behind to beat Manchester City 2-1 in their opening Champions League match, with Alvaro Morata scoring an 81st-minute winner for last season’s runner-up on Tuesday.
Winless in the opening three matches of its title defence in Italy, Juve went behind in its debut in Group D when defender Giorgio Chiellini — under pressure from Vincent Kompany at a corner — headed into his own net in the 57th minute.
The Italians began the fight back in the 70th when Mario Mandzukic glanced home a whipped cross from Paul Pogba. Morata curled in the winner from outside the penalty area after a long ball forward was deflected into his path.
Juventus lost 3-1to Barcelona in the 2015 final in June and saw three key players depart over the summer — Carlos Tevez, Arturo Vidal and Andrea Pirlo — in an overhaul. That perhaps explained the poor start to the Serie A season, which has seen the champions lose two games and draw the other.
Manchester United squandered a lead to lose 2-1at PSV Eindhoven and had left back Luke Shaw carried off with a broken right leg on an unhappy return to the Champions League.
Cristiano Ronaldo continued his impressive run with a hat trick in Real Madrid’s 4-0 win over 10-man Shakhtar Donetsk in Group A.
Ronaldo, who had a five-goal performance in the Spanish league over the weekend, has 80 Champions League goals, three more than Lionel Messi.
Atletico Madrid and Sevilla completed a perfect day for Spain, with Atletico blanking Galatasaray 2-0 and Sevilla shutting out Monchenglandbach 3-0. In other games, Paris St-Germain beat Malmo 2-0; VfL Wolfsburg downed CSKA Moscow 1-0 and Benfica opened with a 2-0 win over Astana.