Manchester City's Haaland extends scoring streak in Villarreal win
Manchester City's Erling Haaland extended his remarkable scoring streak to 12 straight matches as his side recorded a comfortable 2-0 victory at Villarreal in the Champions League on Tuesday.
Bernardo Silva also got on the scoresheet during a dominant display by the visitors at La Ceramica that highlighted City's depth and efficiency, with Haaland continuing to lead the line in imperious form.
City came close to an early breakthrough seconds after kickoff when Jeremy Doku's low shot was superbly saved by Villarreal goalkeeper Luiz Junior.
Pep Guardiola's City side took the lead in the 17th minute, when Rico Lewis delivered a precise pass into the box for Haaland to fire home a first-time effort from the edge of the six-yard box.
The strike extended Haaland's scoring streak to 12 consecutive matches and took his Champions League tally to four this season.
Only Bayern Munich's Harry Kane (19 goals) has scored more for a big-five league European side this term, with Haaland level on 15 goals with Real Madrid's Kylian Mbappe.
Villarreal's best chance of the first half came when Pepe Gueye unleashed a powerful long-range strike that narrowly missed the target.
City, however, nearly doubled their lead when Doku capitalised on a Foyth error to send a dangerous cross into the box. Alfonso Pedraza intervened to clear the ball before it reached Savinho at the far post.
The visitors continued to press and doubled their lead in the 40th minute, again thanks to an assist by Lewis from the right, crossing to captain Silva who headed in unmarked from close range.
After halftime, City showed little urgency to extend their lead and Villarreal offered minimal threat, with Luiz Junior making a couple of fine saves to prevent further damage.
City's win was marred by an injury to midfielder Nico Gonzalez, who was substituted midway through the second half after appearing to suffer a leg muscle injury.
The 23-year-old Spaniard walked off but looked to be in significant discomfort, with Mateo Kovacic replacing him.
City have two wins and a draw from their first three group games, while Villarreal have one point from three matches.
Arsenal run riot to crush Atletico Madrid
Arsenal thrashed Atletico Madrid 4-0 thanks to a devastating second-half broadside at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday to secure a third successive Champions League victory.
What had been a compelling contest with little between the sides became an Arsenal rout with goals by Gabriel, Gabriel Martinelli and a brace from Viktor Gyokeres leaving Diego Simeone's side shell-shocked.
Shortly after Julian Alvarez hit the crossbar for the visitors, Arsenal defender Gabriel broke the deadlock by heading in a Declan Rice free kick in the 57th minute.
Martinelli finished off a sweeping move seven minutes later and Gyokeres prodded in his first goal of the night via a deflection as Arsenal ran riot, the Swede ending a nine-game scoring drought for club and country.
Gyokeres bundled in his second as Atletico were again unable to deal with a set piece.
Victory extended Arsenal's unbeaten run to nine games in all competitions and put them on nine points in the group phase, after three wins without conceding a goal, well on the way to qualifying for the knockout stages.
Atletico, on three points, will have to dust themselves down after their six-game unbeaten run in all competitions came to a juddering halt.
Brimming with confidence after climbing to the top of the Premier League, Arsenal began strongly and almost took the lead when Eberechi Eze's shot deflected off David Hancko and hit the crossbar with Rice bouncing the rebound over the bar.
Myles Lewis-Skelly dragged a shot wide and Bukayo Saka was denied by a block from Atletico keeper Jan Oblak.
The visitors weathered the storm, though, and were almost gifted a goal when Arsenal keeper David Raya was caught in possession well out of his area and Alvarez had the goal at his mercy but placed his shot agonisingly wide from an angle.
When Alvarez curled a superb effort against Arsenal's crossbar soon after the restart the outcome was very much in the balance but Atletico then caved in.
Arsenal's set-piece coach Nicolas Jover would have been purring at the goal that opened the floodgates.
The threat of the Rice-Gabriel combination is hardly a secret but Atletico's defence seemed transfixed as Rice's curling free kick delivery was met by the Brazilian who had ghosted clear to glance a header past Oblak.
With Atletico stunned, Arsenal went for the kill and Lewis-Skelly slid in Martinelli to side-foot past Oblak, meaning he has scored in every Champions League game this season.
Gyokeres then got in on the act with two goals that were hardly masterpieces -- but will have done him the power of good after a barren spell since his big-money move from Sporting.
Inter Milan make light work of Union Saint-Gilloise with 4-0 win
Francesco Esposito made up for an earlier horror miss to score his first Champions League goal as Inter Milan thumped hosts Union Saint-Gilloise 4-0 in Brussels on Tuesday to make it three wins from three in the competition this season.
Inter are in second place in the table with nine points from their three games, behind Paris St Germain on goal-difference, while it is back-to-back 4-0 losses for Union, who have three points from their three games.
Denzel Dumfries fired in the first goal for Inter from close range after he was left unmarked in the box, before the prolific Lautaro Martinez added a second just before halftime as he swept the ball into the top corner from 15 yards.
Inter were awarded a penalty after a VAR review when Kevin Mac Allister, brother of Liverpool midfielder Alexis, handled the ball in the box and Hakan Calhanoglu easily slotted the spot-kick into the bottom-left corner.
It should have been 4-0 when Dumfries set up Esposito for a tap-in from five yards but the 20-year-old striker somehow missed the target for what will go down as one of the misses of the season in the Champions League.
But Esposito did net his third goal for the club, and first in the Champions League, as he slid in and connected with Ange-Yoan Bonny’s low cross to spare his earlier blushes.
Nmecha double as Dortmund down Copenhagen 4-2
Borussia Dortmund midfielder Felix Nmecha scored in each half as they overcame conceding an own goal to comfortably beat Copenhagen 4-2 in their Champions League clash at the Parken Stadium on Tuesday.
The Danes defended gallantly in front of their fanatical fans, but were powerless to stop a Dortmund side that dominated possession and had the quality to get the better of them.
Nmecha broke the deadlock in the 20th minute, pulling off a superb dummy on the edge of the area and allowing the ball to run across his body to send Elias Achouri the wrong way before rifling the ball over the keeper.
That could have been the beginning of the end of the Danish resistance, but Dortmund were surprisingly pegged back when defender Ramy Bensebaini's attempted clearance ricocheted off Waldemar Anton and into the visitors' net 13 minutes later.
Dortmund continued to dominate possession and they took the lead again in the 61st minute when Copenhagen's Lukas Lerager was penalised for almost pulling the shirt of Serhou Guirassy over his head at a set piece.
Bensebaini lashed home the resulting spot-kick, and Lerager’s night went from bad to worse as Nmecha easily held him off before firing his second 15 minutes later.
Fabio Silva then netted his first goal for the German side to make it 4-1 before 17-year-old Copenhagen substitute Viktor Dadason became the third-youngest scorer in the competition’s history with a 90th-minute header.
Unbeaten Dortmund, who travel to Manchester City next, are fourth in the table on seven points, with the Danes 31st in the 36-team standings on one point from three games ahead of their trip to Tottenham Hotspur.
Copenhagen coach Jacob Neestrup was under no illusions about the gulf in quality between the sides.
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