FOOTBALL
Champions League Roundup: Real suffer shock, harsh refereeing hurts Milan, Messi scores
Sheriff Tiraspol produced the most fascinating story of the night as they emerged victorious against Real Madrid in their Champions League group stage tie, leaving the Santiago Bernabeu crowd shell-shocked.
Jasurbek Yakhshiboev headed the ball past Thibaut Courtois to put the Moldovan side ahead.
The Uzbekistan international almost made it 2-0 for Sheriff, but his effort missed the target by a whisker.
Real Madrid dictated the flow of the game most of the time, but a resilient Georgios Athanasiadis, who made 10 saves to win the man of the match award, kept them at bay.
Karim Benzema equalized for the home team in the 65th minute, converting a penalty.
Luka Jovic came close to sealing all three points for Real Madrid in the later stage of the match, but Sheriff had a fairytale ending to the night as Sebastien Thill scored the winner with one minute from regulation time.
AC Milan impress
AC Milan had a brilliant start to the match in front of an electrifying San Siro crowd.
Rafael Leao got Milan the lead in the 20th minute, shortly after Brahim Diaz was denied by the stretching legs of Jan Oblak at the Atleti goal.
But, two back-to-back yellow cards for Franck Kessie left the hosts with only 10 men to play.
The Ivory Coast international was penalized for his foul on Marcos Llorente, but it barely looked like a bookable offence.
Atletico Madrid capitalized on their one-man advantage and shifted the momentum of the game.
However, Milan’s dogged defensive display kept the score unchanged till the 84th minute before Antoine Griezmann fired in a brilliant volley to score his first goal for the club after returning from Barcelona.
In the last minute of stoppage time, Atletico Madrid was awarded a penalty because of Pierre Kalulu’s handball, and veteran Luis Suarez made no mistake to find the back of the net.
Messi’s 1st PSG goal
Lionel Messi scored the first goal in his Paris Saint-Germain career as the Parisians saw off a wasteful Manchester City side in a 2-0 win.
Before Messi scored an absolute stunner from the edge of the box in the 73rd minute, Idrissa Gueye grabbed the opening goal of the night early in the first half.
Bernardo Silva inexplicably missed a glaring open net chance in the 27th minute to restore parity. But, the midfielder could only hit the only crossbar and see Presnel Kimpembe kicking the ball away from danger.
Despite the final score, it were Manchester City who had the better chances of the match.
Lack of precision took the match away from Pep Guardiola’s men while PSG made them pay for their wastefulness with two exquisite counter-attack goals.
Liverpool on fire
Liverpool followed up their opening night win against AC Milan with a 5-1 hammering of Porto.
Mohamed Salah bagged a brace, his Senegalese colleague scored one, and Roberto Firmino marked his return from injury with another two.
Mehdi Taremi scored the only goal for the Portuguese giants.
Shakhtar Donetsk and Inter Milan played out a lifeless 0-0 draw in Kyiv.
Manor Salomon came close to scoring a fifth-minute goal for the Ukrainian side before Nicolo Barella struck the woodwork from 25 yards out.
Shakthar keeper Andriy Pyatov remarkably stopped Inter from snatching a late winner as he kept out a Stefan de Vrij header in the 87th minute minutes after flicking away a Joaquin Correa shot.
Ajax cruised past an injury-ridden Besiktas with Steven Berghuis involved in both the goals for the Dutch giants in their 2-0 victory.
Ajax went ahead in the 17th minute as Dusan Tadic broke into the Besiktas box with some nifty footwork and sent the ball in the path of Berghuis, who slotted the ball home.
Sebastien Haller was on the receiving end of a Berguis cross minutes before the break, and the former West Ham-man made it 2-0 for Ajax.
Belgian champions Club Brugge came from behind to pick up a sensational win against RB Leipzig.
Emil Forsberg set Christopher NKunku for the first goal of the match. Hans Vanaken made it 1-1 in the 22nd minute, and Mats Rits struck four minutes before the interval to make it 2-1 for Brugge.
Donyell Malen scored his first goal in Borussia Dortmund colours as BVB beat Sporting CP 1-0.
It was a welcome win for Marco Rose’s side, who were coming off of a 1-0 weekend defeat to Borussia Monchengladbach.