Champions League: Madrid rocked by Lille, 10-man Juventus roar back to win

  • 10/2/2024
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A first-half penalty earned Lille a shock 1-0 home victory over holders Real Madrid in the Champions League group phase on Wednesday, ending the 15-time winners’ 14-game unbeaten run in the competition. Jonathan David converted from the spot three minutes into first-half stoppage time to hand Real, who had not lost in their previous 36 matches in all competitions, their first defeat since January. The result put Ligue 1 side Lille on three points from two games in the new format of Europe’s premier club competition. Real, who won their opening match against Stuttgart, are also on three points. Carlo Ancelotti’s side started the game with Kylian Mbappé, who joined from Paris Saint-Germain in June, on the bench after the France captain picked up a muscle injury last week. Mbappé’s brother, Ethan, plays for Lille but was not in their squad for this game. Lille went close to opening the scoring after 26 minutes when Andriy Lunin made a spectacular double save to deny David, first from the forward’s header, then by tipping away the Canadian’s follow-up shot. Their relentless pressure paid off in stoppage time when Eduardo Camavinga handled Edon Zhegrova’s free-kick. David confidently converted the resulting penalty which was given after a VAR check. The hosts continued to apply pressure in the second half, refusing to sit back and wait as Real enjoyed possession, cutting off the supply to England midfielder Jude Bellingham. Ancelotti sent on Mbappé and Luka Modric to replace Endrick and Éder Militão and Lille survived a late Real onslaught. Juventus twice came from a goal down to stun hosts RB Leipzig 3-2 thanks to Francisco Conceição’s 83rd-minute winner, despite having goalkeeper Michele Di Gregorio sent off in the 59th minute for a handball outside the box. Juve went 1-0 down in the 30th minute when Benjamin Sesko, who had also scored for Leipzig in their opening defeat by Atlético Madrid, drilled a shot in off the crossbar. The Italian side, who had suffered a double blow at the start of the game with the injuries to captain Bremer and Nicolás González, levelled through Dusan Vlahovic in the 50th minute but went 2-1 down when Sesko converted a penalty in the 65th to put the hosts back in front. The Serbia striker Vlahovic came to their rescue again three minutes later, curling a left-footed shot into the far top corner to equalise before Conceição’s fine finish completed their comeback. David López scored Girona’s first ever Champions League goal but the Catalan side lost 3-2 at home to Feyenoord in a pulsating contest in which both teams missed a penalty and there were two own goals. López put Girona ahead midway through the first half, but Yangel Herrera’s own goal and a strike from the teenager Antoni Milambo swung the contest in the favour of the Dutch visitors. Ayase Ueda missed a penalty for Feyenoord and Bojan Miovski likewise for Girona, before the former Ajax midfielder Donny van de Beek drew the home side level at 2-2. That joy was short-lived, though, as Ladislav Krejci turned the ball into his own net to give Feyenoord the lead again and, this time, they held on to ensure Girona started their maiden Champions League campaign with consecutive defeats. Elsewhere, Ademola Lookman scored one goal and was heavily involved in the other two to drive Atalanta to a 3-0 win over Shakhtar Donetsk as the Italian side outclassed their Ukrainian opponents in Gelsenkirchen. Atalanta went ahead in the 21st minute when Lookman curled a cross into the area which found Berat Djimsiti in front of goal and he controlled the ball before poking it past the goalkeeper, Dmytro Riznyk. They doubled their lead a minute before the break when Sead Kolasinac squared a pass to Lookman in the middle of the area and the forward struck a first-time shot through the legs of his marker, Marlon Gomes, and into the bottom corner. The game was all but over as a contest three minutes into the second half after Lookman played the ball out wide to Davide Zappacosta and his cross into the six-yard box was headed home by Raoul Bellanova. At 3-0, Lookman, who also hit the crossbar in the first half, was taken off with over half an hour to play, his work done for the night. The tie ended with the same scoreline as the last time the sides met in the Champions League in 2019. Benfica’s Kerem Akturkoglu, Ángel Di María, Alexander Bah and Orkun Kokcu scored in a 4-0 demolition of Atlético Madrid to start their Champions League campaign with two consecutive wins. A mistake by Atlético’s defence helped Akturkoglu open the scoring in the 13th minute and another error ended with a penalty which Di María converted. Bah extended Benfica’s lead with a header from a corner in the 75th minute and Kokcu completed the rout against Diego Simeone’s side from the penalty spot after Reinildo Mandava fouled the substitute Zeki Amdouni. At a rain-sodden Maksimir Stadium, AS Monaco came from two goals down to snatch a 2-2 draw away to Dinamo Zagreb, who had lost 9-2 to Bayern Munich in their first game, with Denis Zakaria equalising with a 90th-minute penalty.

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