Mertens instrumental, leading Napoli over Nice
Dries Mertens started this season where he left off the last, setting Napoli on its way to a 2-0 win over nine-man Nice in the first leg of their Champions League playoff on Wednesday.
Mertens scored more than 30 goals last season for host Napoli, with five of them in the Champions League. And it took the Belgium international less than 13 minutes to open his account for this campaign.
Mertens sprung the offside trap to race onto a through-ball, take it past onrushing goalkeeper Yoan Cardinale and slot it into the empty net.
The 30-year-old forward was instrumental in Napoli’s second goal, winning a penalty when tripped by Christophe Jallet. Jorginho converted the spot-kick in the 70th minute.
Nice’s night went from bad to worse in the 79th minute when midfielder Vincent Koziello was shown a straight red card for a challenge on Napoli’s Piotr Zielinski and teammate Alassane Plea followed him off the pitch after receiving a second yellow for dissent.
In other first-leg results, Celtic beat Astana 5-0, while Sevilla won 2-1 in Turkey against Champions League newcomers Istanbul Basaksehir. Olympiakos and Hapoel Beer-Sheva both came from behind to win 2-1, against Rijeka and Maribor, respectively.
Ronaldo ban upheld: Cristiano Ronaldo has criticized his five-game suspension for pushing a referee who had sent him off in a match Sunday.
Ronaldo wrote on his Instagram account Wednesday that “it is impossible to remain silent in this situation, 5 games!! It seems exaggerated and ridiculous to me, this is called persecution!”
Ronaldo’s outburst came after the Spanish soccer federation ratified his suspension.
Without him, host Real Madrid beat Barcelona 2-0 to complete a 5-1 victory on aggregate in the Spanish Super Cup. MLS: Ignacio Piatti scored twice in the first half as the host Montreal Impact (9-8-6) defeated the Chicago Fire 3-0. Briefly: Colombia striker Carlos Bacca joined Spanish club Villarreal on loan for one season from AC Milan . ... Everton has signed Iceland midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson from Swansea for a reported $58 million, a club-record fee . ... Paris Saint-Germain has loaned forward Jese to Premier League club Stoke for the rest of the season.