PARIS: Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 70th Champions League goal and Mario Balotelli again failed to deliver as Real Madrid handed Liverpool a 3-0 Champions League reality check on Wednesday to take complete control of Group ‘B’ with a third straight win.
At Anfield, Ronaldo moved one short of the all-time record 71 held by Raul and hit his 20th of the season with Karim Benzema grabbing a brace.
In a further demonstration of the power of Spanish football, Atletico Madrid routed Malmo 5-0.
While Tuesday night’s 40-goal bonanza never looked like being matched, there was still drama elsewhere as Arsenal scraped a 2-1 win at Anderlecht with late goals from defender Kieran Gibbs and forward Lukas Podolski to mark manager Arsene Wenger’s 65th birthday in style.
German sides continue to score for fun, as Borussia Dortmund romped to a 4-0 win at Galatasaray maintain their 100 percent record in Group ‘D’ the day after Bayern Munich’s magnificent 7-1 in Roma and Schalke 04 beat Sporting Lisbon 4-3.
Bayer Leverkusen also underlined the Bundesliga’s fine form in Europe, beating Zenit St. Petersburg 2-0 on Wednesday.
By contrast, it was a bad night for Italian champions Juventus, who slumped to a surprise 1-0 defeat at Greek side Olympiakos.
All eyes were on Ronaldo but it was Benzema — usually Ronaldo’s favourite goal supplier — who out-scored his more illustrious team-mate at Anfield.
The France forward grabbed the other two goals in a devastating 18-minute first-half spell that silenced the home crowd.
On this form, it is hard to bet against defending champions Real at least reaching the final, if not securing an 11th European crown.
“We are fighting very hard to repeat our success of last season,” said Real coach Carlo Ancelotti, whose team has won its last eight matches in all competitions — scoring 35 goals. “We are playing well and have a huge desire to make that happen again.”
Ronaldo had never scored at Anfield in his five appearances for Manchester United, but he needed only 23 minutes to break that barren run.
Seizing possession in a central area 25 yards from goal, Ronaldo moved the ball onto James Rodriguez before sprinting into the penalty area to meet the Colombian’s chipped pass, which dropped perfectly over three Liverpool defenders, with a sublime finish as he held off Martin Skrtel to flick his shot past Simon Mignolet.
“It was special, my first goal at Anfield and I am very happy,” said Ronaldo. “We knew that Anfield is a difficult place but we were fantastic in the first 45 minutes and we deserved to win.
“I’m not worried about the Champions League goal-scoring record. I know I will beat it. The best thing is that the team has nine points.”
Benzema headed in the second in the 30th minute before pouncing from close range.
Liverpool clearly misses Luis Suarez, who scored 31 league goals last season before joining Barcelona, and Balotelli doesn’t seem to be an able replacement — at least not yet.
Since joining from AC Milan continued, he has only scored once in 10 games and, to make matters worse, as he was substituted at half-time he even swapped shirts with his marker, Pepe, while walking to the dressing rooms.
“It’s not something I stand for,” an angry Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers said. “If you want to do that, for me you do that at the end of the game. It’s something I’ll deal with.”
Liverpool, with three points from three matches, are locked with FC Basel and Ludogorets Razgrad for second place.
Ludogorets got a first ever win by a Bulgarian side in a Champions League group thanks to a 91st-minute winner from defender Yordan Minev in a 1-0 win over Basel.
Arsenal and Dortmund scrapped for top spot last season, and the odds again look in Dortmund’s favour.
Striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored twice inside the first 20 minutes, Marco Reus made it 3-0 before the break and substitute Adrian Ramos completed the rout late on to give Dortmund nine points.
“We were focused, had no problems in defence and our fast breaks were very dangerous,” Dortmund’s World Cup-winning German defender Mats Hummels said.
In Brussels, an Andy Najar header in the 71st minute looked set to give the Belgian champions Anderlecht a rare European victory until Gibbs volleyed in a Calum Chambers cross with a minute left.
Substitute Podolski then struck a minute into injury time to seal all three points, to the great relief of Wenger.
Arsenal sit three points behind Dortmund, but are five clear of the sides below them and well on course for a place in the last 16 with the reverse fixture with Anderlecht to come next.
Arsenal had been forced to hand a Champions League debut to 22-year-old Argentinian goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez with regular custodian Wojciech Szczesny suspended and would-be replacement David Ospina out injured.
“They had big chances that they didn’t take, and our experience made the difference. Unexpectedly, but as long as we didn’t concede the second goal we had a chance at least to take a point,” said Wenger.
“Maybe we didn’t deserve to win it because of the quality of match Anderlecht played tonight.”
In Group ‘A’, Spanish champions Atletico lead Olympiakos on goal difference, with both teams tied on six points and Juventus lagging three points behind.
Swiss midfielder Pajtim Kasami fired the winner for Olympiakos past Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon in the 36th minute.
It was a goal feast for Atletico, with five different scorers in a 5-0 win against Malmo to show there is indeed life in the team’s attack after Diego Costa, who has been brilliant for Chelsea since joining the London club in the offseason.
It took the Spanish champions until after half-time to make the breakthrough, but once Koke had finished off a fine team move to open the scoring there was little doubt Diego Simeone’s men were headed for victory.
Two goals in two minutes from Mario Mandzukic — his 19th in 23 Champions League appearances — and Antoine Griezmann just after the hour mark made the game safe before late goals from Diego Godin and Alessio Cerci rounded off the scoring.
In Group ‘C’, 10-man Bayer Leverkusen went top with victory over Andre Villas-Boas’ Zenit to claim a second straight victory.
Monaco’s goalless draw at home to Benfica means Leverkusen took over at the top, despite having lost their opening match at Monaco before beating Benfica at the BayArena.
Defenders Giulio Donati and Kyriakos Papadopoulos scored the Germans’ goals. Leverkusen were forced to play the final ten minutes a man down after Brazilian left-back Wendell was sent off for a second yellow-card.
Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2014
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