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| September 20, 2002 | Friday | Rajab 12, 1423 |
Manchester United, Olympiakos emerge comfortable winners
LONDON, Sept 19: Manchester United overcame the shock of conceding an early goal to overwhelm Champions League debutants Maccabi Haifa 5-2 Wednesday at Old Trafford where they hope they will lift the European Cup in eight months time.
The biggest winners of the night were Olympiakos Piraeus who thrashed last season’s beaten finalists Bayer Leverkusen 6-2.
Germany’s gloom was completed when Bayern Munich crashed to a 3-2 home defeat to Deportivo Coruna, while Barcelona made it four wins out of four for Spanish clubs over the two nights of opening matches with a 3-2 win against Club Bruges.
There was a shock start at Old Trafford where Haifa, the first Israeli club to play in the Champions League, stole an eighth minute lead through Yaniv Katan in their group F match, but United equalised two minutes later with a Ryan Giggs header and romped to victory with further strikes from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (35), Juan Sebastian Veron (46), Ruud Van Nistelrooy (54) and Uruguayan striker Diego Forlan whose 89th minute penalty was his first goal for United in his 27th match.
Rafi Cohen had scored a second for the visitors four minutes before the penalty which was awarded when David Beckham was upended in the box.
Bayer Leverkusen, who knocked United out in the semifinals last season before losing the final to Real Madrid, began this year’s campaign badly losing 6-2 at Olympiakos Pireaus in the same group after taking the lead.
An own goal from Dimitris Eleftheropoulous after 22 minutes gave Bayer a bright start, but a hat-trick from Predrag Djordjevic spearheaded Olympiakos’s impressive victory.
It was a terrible night for the Germans with Bayern Munich fighting back from 2-0 down to pull level at 2-2, only to lose 3-2 at home to Deportivo Coruna with Dutchman Roy Makaay scoring a hat-trick for the visitors.
Following Real Madrid’s convincing 3-0 win over AS Roma and Valencia’s 2-0 win over Liverpool on Tuesday, Barcelona made it four wins out of four for La Liga with a 3-2 victory over Club Bruges with goals from Luis Enrique (5), Gaizka Mendieta (40) and Javier Saviola (43).
It was a good night for the Italians with AC Milan beating RC Lens 2-1 at home with Filippo Inzaghi scoring twice and Juventus returning home from Feyenoord with a creditable 1-1 draw.
Dynamo Kiev proved too strong for a Newcastle United team struggling at the wrong end of the English Premier League with a 2-0 win in Ukraine. Maksim Shatskikh opened the scoring with a brilliantly-taken 17th minute strike from 20 metres and Aliksandr Khatskevitch headed the second after the break.
In early action Galatasaray won 2-0 at Lokomotiv Moscow.
Champions League collated summaries
Group E
Feyenoord 1 Juventus 1
Scorers:
Feeyenoord: Pierre van Hooijdonk 74
Juventus: Mauro Camoranesi 32
Dynamo Kiev 2 Newcastle United 0
Scorer: Maksim Shatskikh 17, Aliksandr Khatskevitch 62
Group F
Manchester United 5 Maccabi Haifa 2
Scorers:
Manchester United: Ryan Giggs 10, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer 35, Juan Sebastian Veron 46, Ruud van Nistelrooy 54, Diego Forlan 89pen
Maccabi Haifa: Yaniv Katan 8, Rafi Cohen 85
Olympiakos Piraeus 6 Bayer Leverkusen 2
Scorers:
Olympiakos - Giovanni 27, Stelios Giannakopoulos 38, Predrag Djordjevic 44, 63pen, 73, Par Zetterberg 86
Bayer Leverkusen - Dimitris Eleftheropoulos 22og, Bernd Schneider 78pen
Group G
Bayern Munich 2 Deportivo Coruna 3
Scorers:
Bayern Munich - Hasan Salihamidzic 57, Elber 64
Deportivo Coruna - Roy Makaay 12, 45, 77
AC Milan 2 RC Lens 1
Scorers:
AC Milan: Filippo Inzaghi 57, 62
RC Lens: Daniel Moriera 75
Group H
Lokomotiv Moscow 0 Galatasaray 2
Scorers: Mohammed Sarr 72, Arif Erdem 81
Barcelona 3 Club Bruges 2
Scorers:
Barcelona: Luis Enrique 5, Gaizka Mendieta 40, Javier Saviola 43
Club Bruges: Timmy Simons 22pen, Gaetan Englebert 85.—Reuters
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