Malta Independent

Brace lifts Juventus

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But the heavily marked Lewandowsk­i found space 11 minutes later to fire in a loose ball after a shot from Thomas Mueller was blocked by Jose Sa. The Poland striker added the second two minutes after the hour mark, swinging his leg high to tap past Sa.

Substitute Corentin Tolisso made it 3-1 with a stylish shot from outside the area in the 75th. Olympiakos hit back four minutes later through Guilherme, with a deflection helping his volley beat Neuer.

The crowd was growing increasing­ly impatient as Atlético Madrid headed for yet another disappoint­ing home draw.

The minutes passed and Diego Simeone's team struggled to create chances against Bayer Leverkusen, the last-place team in Group D of the Champions League.

Only a victory would keep Atlético at the top of the group, and it finally got the spark it needed when Simeone called Álvaro Morata off the bench with about 20 minutes left in the game at the Wanda Metropolit­ano Stadium.

Eight minutes after he replaced Jorge "Koke" Resurrecci­ón, Morata scored the winner that gave Atlético a 1-0 victory against Leverkusen.

Simeone put Morata into the game to help Diego Costa in the attack, and it didn't take long before he headed in a well-placed cross by left back Renan Lodi in the 78th. Leverkusen goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky got his hand to the ball couldn't keep it from going in.

Atlético's best chance until the goal was a shot by Héctor Herrera that deflected off a defender and prompted a difficult save by Hradecky in the 64th.

The result extended the Atlético's unbeaten streak at home in European competitio­ns to 12 matches. It has lost only one of its last 20 Champions League games at home, a 2-1 defeat to Chelsea in 2017.

Shakhtar Donetsk salvaged a 2-2 draw with Dinamo Zagreb in the Champions League as both teams failed to gain a clear grip on second place in Group C.

Shakhtar took an early lead through Yevhen Konoplyank­a before its Croatian opponent leveled thanks to Dani Olmo's finish from a low cross.

Shakhtar handed Dinamo the lead when goalkeeper Andriy Pyatov brought down Mario Gavranovic in the penalty area. Mislav Orsic stepped up to score the spot kick.

However, it was Shakhtar's turn to level through Brazilian rightback Dodo in the 75th minute.

Dinamo ended a 13-game losing run in European away games but could have taken the win, with Olmo twice hitting the post in the second half.

Raheem Sterling scored a quickfire second-half hat trick as 10-man Manchester City thrashed Atalanta 5-1 to put one foot in the Champions League knockout stages.

The England forward struck three times in the space of 11 minutes after Sergio Aguero had netted twice to cancel out Ruslan Malinovsky's penalty opener for the visitors at the Etihad Stadium.

City's victory lifted it five points clear at the top of Group C with three games still to play after Shakhtar Donetsk salvaged a 2-2 draw with Dinamo Zagreb in the other match.

However, there were a couple of negatives for City as midfielder

Phil Foden was sent off for two bookable offences and Rodri hobbled off injured.

Kylian Mbappe came off the bench to score a hat trick as Paris Saint-Germain extended its perfect record in Group A of the Champions League with a 5-0 win at Club Brugge.

With nine points from three matches and a five-point lead over second-place Real Madrid, PSG made a big step toward the knockout stage as it ended the Belgian's side unbeaten run this season.

Not fit enough to play the full 90 minutes, Mbappe replaced Eric

Choupo-Mouting in the 52nd minute and scored just nine minutes later to make it 2-0 after Mauro Icardi put the visitors ahead with a first-half-goal.

Mbappe, who had yet to score in the Champions League this season, then set up Icardi in the 63rd before adding two late goals for his hat trick.

Tottenham enjoyed all the goals this time as it went from its heaviest home European loss to its biggest Champions League win.

Son Heung-min and Harry Kane both scored twice, and Erik Lamela also netted in a 5-0 victory over Red Star Belgrade yesterday to lift the gloom at Tottenham.

It came three weeks after the humiliatio­n of a 7-2 loss to Bayern Munich for last season's beaten finalists.

Having also thrown away a 2-0 lead to draw their Group B opener to Olympiakos, Spurs are back on track in Europe. They moved to second place, a point ahead of Red Star but five behind Bayern Munich, which beat Olympiakos 3-2.

With only one win in his last four Premier League games, manager Mauricio Pochettino even expressed doubts over his Tottenham future.

Pochettino was helped by a fellow Argentine.

It was a corner from Lamela that Kane headed in after nine minutes and he provided the cross that Son ran onto before finishing with a half volley in the 16th minute.

Son was on target again in the 44th, with Tanguy Ndombele slipping the ball through to the South Korea forward, who beat goalkeeper Milan Borjan at his near post.

This was not a night when Tottenham was going to surrender a winning position.

Not after the fourth goal came in the 57th minute.

Kane won the ball in midfield before playing in Serge Aurier on the right flank. The right back crossed to Lamela who netted on the turn to mark his 200th Tottenham appearance with a goal.

The Serbian champions offered little resistance in defense.

Kane had time to control Ndombele's pass in the penalty area before slipping in the fifth goal in the 72nd minute.

 ??  ?? Juve star Dybala in action yesterday
Juve star Dybala in action yesterday
 ??  ?? Robert Lewandowsk­i
Robert Lewandowsk­i
 ??  ??

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