Malta Independent

Ten-man Juve win in Lyon

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Buffon had made errors in his previous two games for club and country which resulted in goals, but returned to his supreme best at the Parc OL to keep a hard-earned clean sheet.

The 38-year-old spurned Alexandre Lacazette from the penalty spot before producing a reflex save of the highest quality to keep Nabil Fekir's deflected strike out.

Mario Lemina was sent off shortly after that stop to tilt the balance of play firmly in the hosts' favour, but again Buffon stood in their way.

And substitute Cuadrado completed the smash and grab in fitting style, slamming home a mesmeric goal worthy of following his captain's fine earlier example.

FC Porto came from behind to beat Club Brugge 2-1 with an injury-time penalty to become a challenger in Champions League Group G.

Brugge, hit with a slew of injuries, got its first goal in the Champions League this year in the 12th minute when forward Jelle Vossen latched on to a rebound, kept a cool head in a goalmouth scramble and sent it home with a curling shot.

Increasing pressure paid off for Porto in the 68th minute when Mexican defender Miguel Layun was given too much space and hit home with a longrange drive from well outside the penalty area that gave goalkeeper Ludovic Butelle no chance.

In injury time, Andre Silva completed the comeback when he converted a spot kick after Corona was brought down.

Riyad Mahrez made it three wins out of three for Leicester on its Champions League debut, clinching a 1-0 victory for the Group G leaders over FC Copenhagen yesterday.

Leicester is in a strong position to reach the knockout phase, holding a five-point lead over Copenhagen and FC Porto halfway through the group stage.

Bernardo Silva's late goal rescued a 1-1 draw for Monaco away to CSKA Moscow.

CSKA had been heading for victory thanks to a first-half goal from Ivorian striker Lacina Traore — who is himself on loan from Monaco — but Silva leveled in the 87th with a curling shot.

That enraged CSKA goalkeeper and captain Igor Akinfeev, who had produced some spectacula­r saves including a one-handed stop in the lead up to Silva's goal. Akinfeev was unsuccessf­ully trying to stop his decadelong record of Champions League matches without a clean sheet from reaching 40 games.

Hugo Lloris was Tottenham's hero as they held Bayer Leverkusen to a 0-0 draw at the Ba-yArena in yesterday's Champions League clash.

The France goalkeeper made a string of second-half saves - the best of which came against Javier Hernandez - to deny the home side a first win against English opposition since 2011 and keep Group E wide open after three matches.

Son Heung-min, making his first appearance against his old club, set up Vincent Janssen for a first-half tap-in that was ruled out for offside, but it was Spurs who looked the more threatenin­g in a scrappy opening 45 minutes.

Real Madrid survived an early scare to comfortabl­y see off Legia Warsaw 5-1 in the Champions League and extend their unbeaten run to 23 games across all competitio­ns.

Madrid made hard work of the contest before Gareth Bale's first Champions League goal since December 2014 opened the scoring, with Vadis Odidja-Ofoe previously hitting the post in one of several early chances.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Julian Weigl scored in the first half to lead Borussia Dortmund to a 2-1 win over Sporting Lisbon in their Champions League match yesterday.

Bruno Cesar pulled one back for Sporting but the Portuguese side could not find the equalizer.

 ??  ?? Juve’s match winner Cuadrado
Juve’s match winner Cuadrado

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