KANE VS. CRISTIANO
Tottenham battles defending champs to draw to stay tied atop Group H standings,
BERLIN— Tottenham held defending champion Real Madrid to a 1-1 draw in Champions League play on Tuesday, while Liverpool racked up its biggest ever away win in Europe.
Juergen Klopp’s side ended its run of seven group matches by crushing Maribor 7-0 in Slovenia. And to cap a good night for English sides, Manchester City defeated Napoli 2-1.
Spartak Moscow enjoyed a big win in Group E, thrashing Sevilla 5-1, and Besiktas made it three wins from three with a come-from-behind 2-1 victory at Monaco.
Leipzig defeated visiting Porto 3-2 for its first win in European competition, but the other German side in action — Borussia Dortmund — was left contemplating an early exit after being held at APOEL Nicosia to 1-1.
GROUP E
Liverpool’s record away win coincided with Maribor’s worst Champions League loss.
Maribor had lost only one of its last 11 home games in the competition, but it appeared quickly out of its depth as Roberto Firmino, Philippe Coutinho and Mohamed Salah put Liverpool 3-0 up inside 20 minutes.
Salah and Firmino would go on to grab seconds, substitute Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain had Klopp celebrating with the side’s sixth late on, and Trent Alexander-Arnold completed the rout in the last minute. Liverpool’s previous highest score on the road in Europe was 5-0, three times.
Sevilla’s heavy defeat in Moscow means Liverpool is well-placed to top the group with a home game against Maribor next.
Liverpool has five points, the same as Spartak, while Sevilla is third on four.
GROUP F
Napoli ended Manchester City’s Champions League debut in the group stage in 2011, but Pep Guardiola’s side doesn’t look like it will be denied by Napoli this time.
Guardiola kept faith in the side that routed Stoke 7-2 on the weekend and was rewarded with early goals through Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus.
Dries Mertens had the chance to pull one back from the penalty spot after Kyle Walker hauled down Raul Albiol, but Ederson saved the spot kick just as Napoli appeared to be getting back into the game.
Amadou Diawara did better with Napoli’s second penalty with a little more than15 minutes remaining, but there wasn’t to be an equalizer.
“You cannot beat Napoli unless you produce a good performance,” Guardiola said.
Shakhtar Donetsk was three points behind City after beating Feyenoord 2-1, and Napoli was third with only three points from three games. Feyenoord has no points.
GROUP G
Besiktas came back to stun a Monaco side which took the lead through Falcao.
Monaco isn’t the same side which reached the semifinals last season, and this defeat was the side’s fourth across all competitions.
The Turkish side tops the group, five points ahead of Leipzig, which defeated Porto 3-2 for its maiden Champions League win. All the goals came in the first half.
Porto coach Sergio Conceicao sprung a surprise when he left Spain goalkeeper Iker Casillas on the bench in favour of Jose Sa, who was at fault for Leipzig’s first goal.
Porto was third, two points ahead of last-placed Monaco.
GROUP H
Much was expected of the meeting of two of the competition’s most prolific strikers in Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Tottenham’s Harry Kane, but the anticipated shootout failed to materialize.
Ronaldo matched Kane’s tally of five goals from three games when he equalized with a penalty, but the Portuguese also missed several chances, while Keylor Navas denied Kane with a fine save in the first half.
The visitors showed no fear in Madrid and led when a retreating Raphael Varane turned in Serge Aurier’s cross for Kane in the 21st.
Ronaldo equalized after Aurier brought down Toni Kroos.
Hugo Lloris produced a string of saves to deny Madrid a winner.