The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Bayern’s seven-goal blast leaves Spurs stunned
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: Ex-Gunner nets four times as Tottenham wilt
TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 2 BAYERN MUNICH 7
Former Arsenal winger Serge Gnabry embarrassed Tottenham as he scored a stunning four goals in Bayern’s 7-2 Champions League victory.
Gnabry, deemed not good enough for English football after spells at the Gunners and West Brom, produced a quartet of clinical finishes after the break to send the German champions soaring clear at the top of Group B.
Robert Lewandowski added a brace along with Joshua Kimmich’s fine firsthalf goal as Spurs conceded seven goals at home for the first time in a major competition.
Bayern are supposed to be a team in transition but they ripped Tottenham apart in the second half and look real contenders for this competition.
Spurs had opened the scoring through Son Heung-min and briefly threatened a comeback after Harry Kane’s penalty at 4-2 before Bayern ran away with it with three goals in the final 10 minutes.
It leaves the Premier League side in an all-too familiar position of floundering in the early part of the group stage, having had to perform a miracle to progress to the knockout stages last year before going on to make the final against Liverpool.
This hammering, the worst under Mauricio Pochettino, will lead to a Spurs inquest, and they already have work to do if their Champions League journey is not going to end before Christmas.
Red Star Belgrade jumped to second in the group after coming from behind to defeat 10-man Olympiacos 3-1.
MANCHESTER CITY 2 DINAMO ZAGREB 0
Raheem Sterling came off the bench to provide the spark City needed to claim a hard-fought but deserved Group C victory over Dinamo Zagreb.
Pep Guardiola’s side seemed to do everything but score in a one-sided first half at the Etihad Stadium but it took the second-half introduction of Sterling to break the deadlock.
The England forward struck in the 66th minute to put City on course for top spot before Phil Foden added a second in injury time.
After 19 attempts on goal few could quibble with the result but City’s lack of a cutting edge, although key man Kevin De Bruyne was missing with a groin injury, might be of concern to Guardiola.
The City boss himself did not have a quiet night as he was booked in the second half for protesting about a refereeing decision. That came after City had also been frustrated by the VAR system before the break, denied a penalty for handball.
City have had little luck with VAR since it was introduced and another penalty appeal was turned down late on.
Most of the noise in the ground came from Dinamo’s 1,300 fans, but all the good play came from City who moved three points clear at the top after Manor Solomon’s goal in the fifth minute of stoppage time steered Shakhtar Donetsk to a 2-1 win over Atalanta.
Elsewhere, a Casemiro header five minutes from time spared Real Madrid from an ignominious defeat as they came from two goals down to snatch a 2-2 draw against 10-man Club Brugge.
Humbled 3-0 by Paris St-Germain in their Group A opener, the 13-time European champions trailed by two goals at the halfway stage.
However, Sergio Ramos halved the deficit after 55 minutes and Casemiro deprived Brugge of a famous win.
PSG top the group after making it two wins from two by edging out Galatasaray 1-0.
Juventus beat Bayer Leverkusen 3-0, while Group D rivals Atletico Madrid defeated Lokomotiv Moscow 2-0 thanks to Joao Felix and Thomas Partey goals.