LONDON: Marcus Rashford sprinted toward the corner flag inside an empty Parc des Princes and slid on his knees in celebration, just like two seasons ago. Another trip to Paris St Germain in the Champions League and another late winner for the Manchester United striker.

In a heavyweight contest on the opening night of the group stage, United reproduced its stunning exploits from the 2018-19 competition by beating PSG away thanks to Rashford’s 87th-minute strike in a 2-1 win on Tuesday.

It was an eerily similar scenario to 18 months ago, when United arrived in the French capital heavily depleted and 2-0 down from the first leg of the teams’ last-16 match. It was Rashford who clinched an unlikely 3-1 win and progress to the quarter-finals with a stoppage-time penalty.

PSG, last season’s beaten finalists, already have work to do if the Qatar-owned team are to realise their long-held ambition of being European champion for the first time.

Lionel Messi’s Barcelona and Cristiano Ronaldo’s Juventus are up and running already, though.

Messi scored a penalty to set Barca on their way to a 5-1 win over Hungarian outsiders Ferencvaros as the Spanish team began the rebuild of their reputation in Europe’s elite competition, two months after an embarrassing 8-2 loss to Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals last season.

Ronaldo was missing for Juventus after testing positive for the coronavirus last week, but the Italian champions had a worthy replacement in Alvaro Morata as the striker scored twice in a 2-0 win at Dynamo Kiev.

There were wins for Lazio, RB Leipzig and Club Brugge, while Chelsea and Sevilla drew 0-0 and two group-stage newcomers Stade Rennes and Krasnodar drew 1-1.

There were no fans at the Parc des Princes, one of three stadiums along with Barcelona’s Camp Nou and Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge to be without spectators for the return of the Champions League because of the coronavirus.

Other games were sparsely attended, with nearly 16,700 spectators watching Zenit St. Petersburg lose 2-1 to Brugge, 14,850 seeing Juventus win in Kyiv, and 5,000 attending the Rennes-Krasnodar game.

A sluggish PSG certainly could have done with some backing from their supporters, with United proving more than a match for the home team despite having a makeshift center-back pairing of Axel Tuanzebe and Victor Lindelof while Paul Pogba started on the bench.

United went ahead through midfielder Bruno Fernandes twice-taken penalty midway through the first half but conceded when Anthony Martial rose to clear Neymar’s corner from the left, only to glance a header past his own goalkeeper, David de Gea, in the 55th.

Rashford had already been denied by PSG goalkeeper Keylor Navas when he collected a pass from Pogba and smashed a low, angled shot inside the far post from the edge of the penalty area.

“Of course it’s a nice feeling. More importantly we win the game and we’re in a strong position now in the group,” Rashford told BT Sport. “It’s the first game, the concentration and intensity we showed here we have to take forward in the next games in the Premier League.”

The win sets United up nicely for next week’s home clash with RB Leipzig, who are top of Group ‘H’ after beating Istanbul Basaksehir 2-0 in front of just under 1,000 fans thanks to two first-half goals by Spanish defender Angelio.

Ronald Koeman got his first Champions League campaign as Barca coach off to a winning start with a confident win over Ferencvaros that gives them control of Group ‘G’, top but level on three points with Juve.

Ferencvaros, the first Hungarian team to make the group stage in 11 years, started brightly and even had the ball in the net via Tokmac Nguen only for the powerful 12th-minute strike to be ruled out for offside.

Messi won and converted the penalty to give the Catalans a 27th-minute lead and the match was as good as done when Ansu Fati clipped home Frenkie de Jong’s sumptuous pass just before the break.

Philippe Coutinho lashed home the third before Ihor Kharatin pulled one back from the penalty spot after Gerard Pique was sent off for pulling back Nguen as he charged towards goal.

Pique’s red card means he will miss next week’s game away at Juve, a greater test of Barca’s capabilities.

Pedri and Ousmane Dembele finished the scoring for the 10-man hosts as they prepare for the weekend’s Clasico with Real Madrid.

“We go into it with the maximum motivation possible,” said Fati. “It’s a Clasico, a game I have always dreamed of playing in.”

Juve coped well without Ronaldo in Kiev, with Morata — a recent arrival from Atltico Madrid on loan — scoring twice in the second half.

It was a good night for Italy as Ciro Immobile got revenge on his old club Borussia Dortmund by scoring in Lazio’s 3-1 win over the Bundesliga club in Rome, their first Champions League match in 13 years.

Immobile managed just three goals in 24 Bundesliga games for Dortmund in 2014/15, but last season’s European Golden Shoe winner outshone Dortmund’s star forward Erling Braut Haaland by netting the opening goal for the hosts after just six minutes.

Lazio went two ahead midway through the first half thanks to Marwin Hitz deflected Luis Alberto’s whipped corner into his own goal.

Haaland pulled one back with a thumping finish but Immobile laid on an easy finish for Jean-Daniel Akpa-Akpro to hand Lazio a big win.

“There was an extra flavour and we are satisfied because the match was played to perfection,” continued Immobile.

Simone Inzaghi’s men are level on three points with Brugge in Group ‘F’ following their dramatic 2-1 win at Zenit Saint Petersburg earned thanks to Charles De Ketelaere 93rd minute winner.

Chelsea are still waiting for a 220 million pounds ($284 million) spending spree to pay off they began their campaign with an uninspiring Group ‘E’ draw with Sevilla at Stamford Bridge.

The Blues have now won just two of their opening six games of the season and the only consolation of a cagey encounter for Lampard was a rare clean sheet.

All four sides in the group are on a single point after Rennes drew with Krasnodar in their first ever Champions League match in front of 5,000 passionate fans in Brittany. Rennes took the lead through striker Serhou Guirassy’s penalty in the 56th, but conceded three minutes later when left back Cristian Ramirez’s long-distance strike beat goalkeeper Alfred Gomis at the near post.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2020