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| September 29, 2005 | Thursday | Sha'aban 24, 1426 |
Barcelona, Juve, Bayern and Arsenal win again
LONDON, Sept 28: Barcelona, Juventus, Bayern Munich and Arsenal all maintained perfect starts to their Champions League campaigns on Tuesday while Manchester United kick-started theirs with a late winner over Benfica.
Barcelona were the highest scorers on the opening night of Matchday Two with a 4-1 win over Udinese at the Nou Camp to stay top of Group C with World Footballer of the Year Ronaldinho scoring a hat trick.
Udinese, who briefly troubled the Spanish champions when Felipe equalised Ronaldinho’s opening goal, were overwhelmed in the end and finished with 10 men after Vidigal saw the red card four minutes into the second half.
Juventus were also convincing winners, thumping Rapid Vienna 3-0 in their Group A match at the Stadio Delle Alpi with goals from David Trezeguet, Adrian Mutu and Zlatan Ibrahimovic although there were only 11,156 fans there to see them do it.
Bayern Munich continued the domination of the big guns in that group with a 1-0 win over Club Bruges in Munich where Martin Demichelis scored the only goal after 32 minutes.
Arsenal stayed top of Group B with a 2-1 win over Ajax in Amsterdam thanks to an early strike from Fredrik Ljungberg and a second half penalty from Robert Pires.
In the same group, tiny Thun of Switzerland picked up their first ever Champions League points with a 1-0 win over Sparta Prague thanks to an 88th minute goal from Selver Hodzic.
Meanwhile Manchester United left it late to beat Benfica 2-1 at Old Trafford in their first meeting in European competition since they clashed in the 1968 European Cup final.
Ruud Van Nistelrooy scored United’s winner five minutes from time to give them their first victory in the competition after their opening 0-0 draw at Villarreal two weeks ago.
Villarreal again drew 0-0 at Lille, while in the night’s other match, Panathinaikos, who lost 3-0 at Udinese in their opening game, beat Werder Bremen 2-1 leaving the Germans without a point from their opening two games.
Results
Group A
Juventus 3 Rapid Vienna 0
Bayern Munich 1 Club Bruges 0
Group B
Thun 1 Sparta Prague 0
Ajax Amsterdam 1 Arsenal 2
Group C
Barcelona 4 Udinese 1
Panathinaikos 2 Werder Bremen 1
Group D
Lille 0 Villarreal 0
Manchester United 2 Benfica 1
—Agencies
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