A round-up of all the reports and results from Wednesday night’s Uefa Champions League action.
Arsenal 6 Ludogorets 0
Arsenal: Sanchez (12’), Walcott (42’), Oxlade-Chamberlain (46’), Ozil (56’, 83’, 87’)
• Mesut Ozil scored a second-half hat-trick as Arsenal turned on the style to thrash Ludogorets 6-0 and move to the verge of the knockout rounds.
Arsenal had far too much firepower for the Bulgarian champions with Alexis Sanchez and Theo Walcott both scoring stunners before the break and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Mesut Ozil completing the demolition after it.
Arsenal survived a few defensive lapses in the first half but could have scored more as they cantered to a seventh successive win in all competitions.
Arsene Wenger’s rampant side top Group A on goal difference from Paris St Germain, who also have seven points after beating Basel. Ludogorets and Basel have one point.
*Reuters
Barcelona 4 Manchester City 0
Barcelona: Messi (17’, 61’, 69’), Neymar (89’)
• Manchester City’s Claudio Bravo and Pep Guardiola endured a nightmare return to Barcelona as Lionel Messi’s hat-trick spearheaded a 4-0 rout for the Spanish champions.
Guardiola led Barca to 14 trophies in a four-year reign between 2008 and 2012, but his homecoming was undone by a series of shocking defensive errors and Messi’s clinical touch on his return from injury.
Messi pounced on Fernandinho’s slip to give Barca a half-time lead before goalkeeper Bravo was sent off for handling Luis Suarez’s shot outside the area.
Two more sumptuous Messi finishes soon followed and Neymar made amends for missing a penalty with a brilliant individual run and finish for Barca’s fourth after Jeremy Mathieu’s red card left both sides with 10 men.
City now trail Barca by five points at the top of Group C.
*Agence France-Presse
Bayern Munich 4 PSV Eindhoven 1
Bayern: Muller (13’), Kimmich (21’), Lewandowski (59’), Robben (84’)
PSV: Narsingh (41’)
• Bayern Munich crushed Dutch side PSV Eindhoven 4-1 in Group D to bounce back after three games without a win in all competitions.
What had started as a walk in the park, with Bayern riding roughshod over the Dutch side with goals from Thomas Muller and Joshua Kimmich, turned into a nervous affair after the visitors pulled a goal back through Luciano Narsingh before half-time.
The German champions, however, kept their cool and Robert Lewandowski headed in the third goal on the hour to settle their nerves.
Arjen Robben made sure of the three points and ended Bayern’s run of three matches without a win with an 84th-minute header against his former team to stretch their Champions League record to 14 successive home wins.
*Reuters
Celtic 0 Borussia Monchengladbach 2
Galdbach: Stindl (57’), Hahn (77’)
• Celtic’s 21-match unbeaten home record was wrecked as Borussia Moenchengladbach cashed in on two mistakes from defender Kolo Toure to deservedly win their Group C encounter 2-0.
Poor second-half errors from the Ivorian veteran set up goals for Lars Stindl and Andre Hahn to give the Germans their first victory following two defeats and leave Celtic at the bottom of the table with one point.
The hosts, attempting to reprise the sort of special Parkhead night that inspired them to hold Manchester City in their previous match, were under pressure early in a first half that Gladbach dominated.
Craig Gordon had to make fine saves from Ibrahima Traore, Jonas Hofmann and Hahn as the injury-depleted visitors took a grip. Celtic, against the run of play, then carved out their best chance moments before halftime only for Scott Sinclair to balloon the ball over the bar.
The home team gave away a soft goal when Toure made a mess of trying to shepherd the ball away from the goalmouth. Hahn robbed him and found Stindl who shot between Gordon’s legs at his near post.
The 35-year-old then got caught in possession by Stindl just outside the centre circle and the ball broke to Hahn who forged forward to seal Gladbach’s first away win in the European Cup proper since 1977.
*Reuters
Dynamo Kiev 0 Benfica 2
Benfica: Salvio (9’ pen), Cervi (55’)
• A goal in each half kept alive Benfica’s hopes of progressing to the knockout stages after a 2-0 win in Kiev.
Eduardo Salvio slotted home a penalty in the ninth minute to hand the visitors the early advantage before Franco Emmanuel Cervi doubled the lead 10 minutes into the second half.
The victory puts Benfica on four points at the halfway stage of a tight Group B, with Napoli leading on six and Besiktas second on five.
*The National staff
Rostov 0 Atletico Madrid 1
Atletico: Carrasco (62’)
• Atletico Madrid laboured to a 1-0 win over Rostov to maintain their 100 per cent record in Group D.
The impressive Yannick Carrasco scored the only goal in the second half to hand Rostov their first home defeat in 26 games.
Atletico were favourites and should have taken the lead after just 90 seconds. Soslan Dzhanaev could only weakly parry Carrasco’s free kick straight into the path of Angel Correa who screwed his shot wide.
Dzhanaev made up for his error by saving well from Carrasco and midway through the half Correra wastefully blazed over from close range.
Primera Liga leaders Atletico continued to dominate in the second half but they had to wait until just before the hour mark until they had a decent effort on goal as Fernando Torres’s header went inches over the bar.
The breakthrough came soon afterwards as Rostov failed to cut out Juanfran’s cross and the ball dropped invitingly for Carrasco, who drilled a fierce left-foot shot past Dzhanaev.
The Rostov goalkeeper made another fine save to deny Antoine Griezmann late on as the visitors held on for a deserved victory.
*Reuters
Napoli 2 Besiktas 3
Napoli: Mertens (30’), Gabbiadini (69’)
Besiktas: Correia (12’), Aboubakar (38’, 86’)
• Vincent Aboubakar headed a late goal, his second of the game, to give Besiktas a shock 3-2 win away at Napoli after the Serie A team had twice come from behind and missed a penalty along the way.
An early goal by Adriano gave Besiktas the lead, Dries Mertens equalised on the half-hour and Aboubakar put the Turkish side back in front before halftime in the Group B game.
Lorenzo Insigne’s penalty was saved by Fabricio in the 50th minute but Napoli were awarded another spot kick 19 minutes later and substitute Manolo Gabbiadini converted.
Gabbiadini also had a goal disallowed for offside before Aboubakar got behind the Napoli defence to head home in the 86th minute, leaving Napoli with six points in Group B and the Turkish side with five.
*Reuters
Paris Saint-Germain 3 Basel 0
PSG: Di Maria (40’), Lucas (62’), Cavani (90’+3)
• Paris St Germain edged closer to the last 16 as goals by Angel Di Maria, Lucas and Edinson Cavani secured a flattering 3-0 home win over Basel in Group A.
Di Maria put the hosts ahead five minutes before the break, Lucas made it 2-0 in the second half and Cavani’s last-gasp penalty rounded it off to put PSG on seven points after three games, second in the group on goal difference behind Arsenal, who hammered Ludogorets 6-0.
Basel, who struck the woodwork three times at the Parc des Princes, are third on one point ahead of Ludogorets on goal difference.
The reverse games will be played on November 1 when PSG, who were under-par for much of the encounter, will need to raise their performance-level if they want to stay in contention for top spot.
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