Messi magic sinks City; a new Sheriff in town
Lionel Messi scored his first Paris Saint-German goal and Luxembourg midfielder Sebastien Thill struck late for newcomers Sheriff to stun 13-time champion Real Madrid in the Champions League yesterday.
Messi’s brilliant strike capped a 2-0 win for PSG over fellow big spenders Manchester City.
The surprise of the second round was Moldovan club Sheriff’s coup in Madrid, where the home team was repeatedly thwarted by Greek goalkeeper Giorgos Athanasiadis and missed a host of chances before Thill’s last-minute goal secured a 2-1 win for the visitors.
Luis Suarez also struck late as his injury-time penalty gave Atletico Madrid a 2-1 win at 10-man AC Milan.
Club Brugge and Liverpool also claimed away wins at Leipzig and Porto, respectively.
With all the attention on PSG’s star attacking trio of Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe, it was unheralded midfielder Idrissa Gueye who opened the scoring in Paris in the eighth minute.
PSG were lucky to be leading at the break with Raheem Sterling and Bernardo Silva hitting the crossbar in quick succession, the latter from two yards out with an empty net.
Messi settled the issue in the 74th after playing a one-two with Mbappe, who returned the ball with his heel, and then dinking it over City goalkeeper Ederson inside the far corner.
It was the Argentine star’s first goal since his summer switch from Barcelona.
In the other group A game, Club Brugge won 2-1 at Leipzig.
Real Madrid were happy to be back playing in the Santiago Bernabeu stadium, but the visitors appeared to feel right at home there, too.
Uzbek forward Jasurbek Yakhshiboev stunned the home fans by scoring with a header to Brazilian defender Cristiano’s cross in the 25th minute.
Madrid pushed and pushed for an equaliser before Karim Benzema finally scored with an expertly taken penalty in the 64th. Thill’s powerful late winner gave Sheriff an unexpected second win from two games to top group D with six points.
Madrid are second with three points, ahead of Shakhtar Donetsk and Inter Milan who have one each after drawing 0-0 in an early game yesterday.