An early goal from Ousmane Dembele and a late Lionel Messi penalty gave Barcelona a 2-0 win away to Juventus in the Champions League on Wednesday after Alvaro Morata had three goals disallowed for offside for the Serie A side.
Dembele struck with a deflected shot in the 14th minute for a Barcelona side smarting from Saturday’s home defeat by Real Madrid. Juventus, still missing Cristiano Ronaldo after he tested positive for COVID-19 two weeks ago, was frustrated as Morata had two goals disallowed in the first half and a third after halftime when VAR showed that his heel was offside.
Juve’s frustration was complete as defender Merih Demiral was sent off in the 85th minute and Messi settled the match with a stoppage-time penalty to leave Barcelona top of Group G with six points and Juventus on three.
Marcus Rashford scored a hat trick as Manchester United beat Leipzig 5-0 at home, while Chelsea brushed aside Krasnodar 4-0 in Russia, giving England’s four clubs a sweep of wins this week without conceding a goal.
Second-half goals
A wave of second-half goals also earned wins for Paris Saint-Germain — after losing Neymar early to injury — Borussia Dortmund and Sevilla.
United has the maximum six points from its opening two games in its group.
Chelsea kickstarted its group campaign thanks to goals from Callum Hudson-Odoi, Timo Werner, Hakim Ziyech and a late strike from Christian Pulisic.
Chelsea has four points after two games in Group E and hosts Rennes next Wednesday. Krasnodar, which visits Sevilla next, has one.
PSG’s Moise Kean scored twice and Kylian Mbappe grabbed two assists as it overcame a sluggish start to beat Turkish side Istanbul Basaksehir 2-0 away, securing its first win in this season’s group stage.
PSG suffered an injury blow, however, as Brazil forward Neymar was forced off in the 26th minute due to a thigh problem and was replaced by Pablo Sarabia.
The results: Group E: Krasnodar 0 lost to Chelsea 4 (Hudson-Odoi 37, Werner 76-pen, Ziyech 79, Pulisic 90); Sevilla 1 (De Jong 55) drew with Rennes 0.
Group F: Club Brugge 1 (Vanaken 42-pen) drew with Lazio 1 (Correa 14); Borussia Dortmund 2 (Sancho 78-pen, Haaland 90+1) bt Zenit St. Petersburg 0.
Group G: Ferencvaros 2 (Nguen 59, Boli 90) drew with Dynamo Kiev 2 (Tsygankov 28-pen, De Pena 41); Juventus 0 lost to Barcelona 2 (Dembele 14, Messi 90-pen).
Group H: Istanbul Basaksehir 0 lost to Paris St.-Germain 2 (Kean 64, 79); Manchester United 5 (Greenwood 21, Rashford 74, 78, 90+2, Martial 87-pen) bt RB Leipzig 0.
