LONDON: In a fiercely competitive Champions League round on Wednesday, the 100 percent winning records of Pep Guardiola and Carlo Ancelotti with their new clubs finally came to an end.

Raheem Sterling netted at both ends as Guardiola’s Manchester City trailed three times at Celtic, levelled each time and finished strongly before having to settle for a 3-3 draw.

The coach’s winning streak to start the season ended at 10 matches.

Ancelotti, a three-time Champions League winner as a coach, had won his first eight games at Bayern Munich, but his team failed to impress in losing 1-0 at Atletico Madrid.

It was a repeat of the result at the Vicente Calderon stadium when the teams met in the semi-finals last season.

Barcelona played their part on a night of come-from-behind wins, 28 goals in eight matches and three missed penalties.

The five-time champions, missing the injured Lionel Messi, trailed at Borussia Moenchengladbach before scoring twice in a nine-minute period midway through the second half to secure a 2-1 win and make it a double for Spanish clubs against German opposition.

And while City’s perfect start to the season was ended in Glasgow, their Premier League rivals Arsenal eased to a 2-0 victory against Basel.

On paper, the Scotland v England Group ‘C’ clash at Celtic Park appeared to be a bit of a mismatch with City looking to equal Tottenham Hotspur’s English record of 11 successive victories at the start of a campaign from 1960.

But instead Celtic gave City their biggest scare of the flourishing Guardiola era at a raucous Parkhead.

Moussa Dembele missed a penalty in Celtic’s 7-0 drubbing in Barcelona but took only three minutes to banish that memory and score on Wednesday. That lead lasted only nine minutes until Fernandinho equalised.

City winger Sterling scored at both ends in an eight-minute span to make it 2-2 in the 28th before Dembele capitalised on an Aleksandar Kolarov error to make it 3-2 just after the break.

However, Nolito got City’s third equaliser and it was the English side who looked more likely to go on and win it.

“I don’t know how many the chances they had after the third goal. We should have won it,” said Guardiola.

It is Barca who are top of the section after the Spanish champions ended Gladbach’s long winning run at home but only after trailing at halftime.

Thorgan Hazard scored in the 34th, finishing off a move after Barcelona’s Sergio Busquets was dispossessed in midfield.

Busquets was involved in the equaliser, finding Neymar to deliver a key pass for substitute Arda Turan to score with a shot in the 65th before Gerard Pique got the winner on 74 minutes.

“They put in a huge effort in the first half, but overall I think we were better and it is a deserved result,” said Pique.

Barca can now look forward to a fascinating double-header with their old coach Guardiola’s City.

Atletico and Bayern were quickly reunited in the group stage after meeting in last season’s semi-finals.

The Spaniards eliminated Bayern on away goals in the semi-finals of last season’s Champions League and there was to be no revenge for the five-time European champions as Yannick Carrasco’s first-half strike separated the sides at the Vicente Calderon in Group ‘D’.

The Belgium winger scored in the 35th, aiming a shot on the run past Bayern ‘keeper Manuel Neuer that went in off a post and Diego Simeone’s team would have won by a wider margin had Antoine Griezmann not struck the bar with a late penalty — just as he did in the final last season, when Atletico lost to city rival Real Madrid for the second time in three seasons.

Atletico have maximum points before a double-header with Rostov, who claimed their first ever point in the competition in a 2-2 draw with PSV Eindhoven in Russia.

All the goals came in the first half, with Dmitri Poloz twice having Rostov in front only for Davy Proepper and Luuk de Jong to score for PSV.

The Dutch champions could have won the game but Proepper saw his second-half penalty saved.

Arsenal and Paris St Germain, who drew 1-1 in France two weeks ago, both won to take control in Group ‘A’.

Theo Walcott made the difference as Arsenal eased to three points against Basel at the Emirates Stadium.

The Swiss champions have enjoyed excellent results in European competition against English sides in recent years but a first-half brace by Walcott ensured it was a comfortable night for the Gunners.

“We had pace, technical quality and movement. My only regret is we didn’t take all our chances,” said Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger.

PSG fell behind in Bulgaria when Ludogorets Razgrad scored in the 16th through Brazilian defender Natanael.

Blaise Matuidi and Edinson Cavani gave the visitors the lead before Ludogorets defender Cosmin Moti had a penalty saved by Alphonse Areola. Cavani quickly sealed the outcome, getting his second goal in the 60th for a 3-1 win.

In Group ‘B’, Napoli continued their excellent start to the season by beating Benfica 4-2 in Italy.

Marek Hamsik gave them a first-half lead at the San Paolo before three goals in seven second-half minutes, a Dries Mertens brace coming either side of an Arkadiusz Milik penalty.

Goncalo Guedes and Eduardo Salvio got goals back for Benfica, but they slumped to a first defeat of the season.

Besiktas got their second straight 1-1 draw after 18-year-old substitute Viktor Tsygankov earned Dynamo Kiev a point in the 65th minute in Istanbul.

That canceled out Portugal winger Ricardo Quaresma’s free kick in the 29th.

Napoli already have a four-point lead over Besiktas. Benfica and Dynamo each have a point.

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2016