Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and Paris St. Germain kept up their perfect starts in the Champions League on Wednesday with their third wins, against Viktoria Plzen, Juventus and Anderlecht respectively.
Franck Ribery bagged a brace as defending champion Bayern Munich crushed Plzen 5-0, Cristiano Ronaldo scored Real Madrid’s goals in the 2-1 defeat of Juventus, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic put away four in PSG’s impressive 5-0 romp at Anderlecht.
PSG is five points ahead of Benfica and Olympiakos in Group C as Edinson Cavani scored one to add to Ibrahimovic’s four.
In Lisbon, Benfica battled out a 1-1 draw against Olympiakos, which went ahead through Alejandro Dominguez. Oscar Cardozo levelled for Benfica seven minutes from time.
In the glamour game of the night, Ronaldo guided Real past Juventus at the packed Estadio Bernabeu. The Portuguese hitman shot the whites ahead in the fourth minute from a tight angle, after being played through by Angel di Maria.
Fernando Llorente equalised for Juventus in the 22nd by turning in the rebound after Iker Casillas had saved from Paul Pogba. But six minutes later Ronaldo made it 2-1 with a calm penalty after Juventus defender Giorgio Chiellini had blocked Sergio Ramos.
Chiellini was sent off two minutes into the second half for elbowing Ronaldo, and Real managed to play out time without too many problems.
“This is a good result. We played well for an hour or so — then we dropped our rhythm,” Real coach Carlo Ancelotti said. “I didn’t enjoy the end because we looked really tired. We need to find a little bit more balance in these important matches.”
The whites are five points ahead of Galatasaray atop Group B. The Turks beat FC Copenhagen 3-1 on goals from veterans Felipe Melo, Wesley Sneijder and Didier Drogba.
Bayern is three points ahead of Manchester City atop Group D after their hammering of Plzen. David Alaba, Mario Goetze and Bastien Schweinsteiger added to Ribery’s two goals.
It was also a good night for Manchester United, which stayed top of Group A with a 1-0 home defeat of Real Sociedad, on an early own goal from Sociedad defender Inigo Martinez. “If we had scored five or six today it wouldn’t have looked out of place, so in command were we,” said United manager David Moyes.
United is one point above Bayer Leverkusen, which caned Shakhtar Donetsk 4-0, with two goals from Stefan Kiessling.
Correction
The third paragraph of “Three out of three for Bayern, Real Madrid and PSG” (Oct. 25, 2013, Sport) said that PSG was four points ahead of Benfica and Olympiakos in Group C. Actually, it was five points ahead.
