PARIS, Sept 29: Manchester United may have no money left after signing Wayne Rooney but it was well worth it if his debut was anything to go by as the teenage star hit a hat trick to see his team to a 6-2 trouncing of Turkish side Fenerbahce in the Champions League on Tuesday.
Rooney may have been the toast of one half of Manchester but Dutchman Roy Makaay was the hero of Munich as he struck a hat trick as well, as Bayern Munich strolled to a 4-0 hammering of Dutch giants Ajax.
There was relief in Madrid to on which there has not been much to do so thus far this season for Real Madrid as Raul rediscovered his scoring touch and netted two in a come from behind 4-2 victory over another crisis club AS Roma.
Dynamo Kiev lead Real's group as they beat Bayer Leverkusen 4-2 to maintain their 100 per cent start to the campaign - having been given a 3-0 victory over Roma after the referee Anders Frisk was hit by a missile in their opening match in Rome.
Deportivo La Coruna would dearly love to have Makaay back as they fired blanks in the 2-0 reverse in Monaco, though it was an improvement on the 8-3 thrashing they took at the same opposition's hands last season.
Monaco will have been cheered too by Liverpool's surprise defeat at the hands of Olympiakos, the Greek side winning 1-0 and inflicting the English side's first ever loss at the hands of a team from their country.
Rooney, 18, who lasted the full 90 minutes, blasted two long-range first half goals and curled a spectacular second-half free-kick after Ryan Giggs had headed the home side in front in the seventh minute.
Rooney was wearing a United shirt for the first time after signing from English Premiership rivals Everton for 27 million pounds last month and since breaking a bone in his foot during Euro 2004 in June.
Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy and winger David Bellion scored two more goals for United near the end, while Fenerbahce's Brazilian striker Nobre scored once and Tuncay Sanli a goal apiece for the visitors when the score was 3-0 and 4-1.
Makaay has now scored ten times in as many Champions League matches for Bayern and moved the German powerhouse within touching distance of the knockout phase. Ajax manager Ronald Koeman came here with fond memories after winning the 1988 European championships in Munich with the Netherlands but it was a night he would rather forget.
The comeback victory, after going two goals down in 21 minutes, almost certainly kept him in a job after recent criticism of Real and gave them a fighting chance of progressing from the Champions League group B.
The three R's - Rooney, Roy and Raul may just have produced the sparked that their teams needed for their season to get underway so their rivals better look out.
RESULTS
Monaco 2 Deportivo La Coruna 0
Olympiakos 1 Liverpool 0
Dynamo Kiev 4 Bayer Leverkusen 2
Real Madrid 4 AS Roma 2
Bayern Munich 4 Ajax 0
Juventus 1 Maccabi Tel Aviv 0
Manchester United 6 Fenerbahce 2
Sparta Prague 1 Lyon 2. -AFP