The Football Faithful
·5 November 2024
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Yahoo sportsThe Football Faithful
·5 November 2024
Here’s all of the highlights and action from Tuesday night’s Champions League matches as Viktor Gyokeres scored a hattrick against Man City, Real Madrid suffered a surprise defeat, and Liverpool ruined Xabi Alonso’s return to Anfield.
Ruben Amorim isn’t the Manchester United manager just yet, but he made them all very happy after Sporting Club sprung a shock on Premier League champions Man City in his last home game in Lisbon.
Viktor Gyokeres continued his stellar form for the Portuguese outfit with a hat-trick at the Estádio José Alvalade, taking him to 23 for the season. The Swede opened his account with a lovely finish in the first half before converting two penalties in the second period, while Max Araujo scored seconds after the interval.
This all came after Phil Foden put Man City in the lead, but it was a miserable night for Pep Guardiola’s side. They have now lost three successive games in all competitions.
Before the game Amorim worried that United supporters would see him as the “new Alex Ferguson” if Sporting won. You’ve put the thought in their heads now, Ruben…
Liverpool were fairly lethargic in the opening 45 minutes of their encounter with Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen, but they came to life in the second half.
Luis Diaz awakened Anfield with a delicious chipped finish on the hour mark and Cody Gakpo doubled their lead moments later. The German side folded thereafter as Diaz grabbed his second and third of the night.
Liverpool are now top of the table and Arne Slot has won his first four games in the Champions League as Reds manager – emulating a certain Jurgen Klopp.
It’s been a terrible couple of weeks for Real Madrid. First they lose heavily to hated rivals Barcelona at the Bernabeu, then Vinicius Junior misses out on the Ballon d’Or, and now they’ve been mashed again at their own ground, this time by AC Milan.
Malick Thiaw gave the visitors an early, which was cancelled by a classy panenka from the spot by Vinicius.
Alvaro Morata returned to haunt his former club with a goal just before halftime before Tijani Reijnders netted in the 73rd minute to put them two ahead.
Antonio Rudiger thought he had pulled one back but it was chalked off following a VAR review. Nothing is going for Los Blancos right now, but what a win for Milan.
A rare victory for Brendan Rodgers in the Champions League and a convincing one at that. Christoph Baumgartner opened the scoring for RB Leipzig, but Nicolas Kuhn grabbed a first-half brace against his former side, including a wonderful strike from range, to put Celtic in front. Reo Hatate capitalised on a mistake from the goalkeeper to seal three valuable points for the Glasgow outfit.
Nicolas Kühn scores an absolute beauty against his former club 🔥 📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK–
Sturm Graz came so close to nabbing a point at the Westfalenstadion, but a misplaced pass at the back gave Borussia Dortmund the opportunity to grab the winner. Donyell Malen didn’t pass it up, driving the ball into the net to leave them fourth in the league table.
Juventus put in another subpar performance in the Champions League as Lille came close to a big win at their home ground. The French side went ahead in the 27th minute when Edon Zhegrova supplied a brilliant pass for Jonathan David to run onto and finish superbly
A second-half penalty from Dusan Vlahovic levelled matters, however, and the Old Lady avoided defeat to move them up to 10th.
Tuesday, 5 November