ANKARA, November 5 (Reuters): Manchester United suffered a shock 2-1 defeat at Istanbul Basaksehir on Wednesday, the English side's first loss in three Champions League group matches and the Turkish champions' first victory in Europe's premier club competition. United fell behind after 12 minutes when Edin Visca's long pass found Demba Ba in acres of space and the striker ran forward before finishing neatly past goalkeeper Dean Henderson. Basaksehir doubled t

BARCELONA, November 5 (Reuters): Barcelona earned a far from convincing 2-1 win at home to a depleted Dynamo Kyiv on Wednesday as Lionel Messi scored a penalty for the third Champions League game in a row with the Spaniards maintaining their winning start to the group stage. The Argentine, who had also scored spot-kicks in wins over Group G opponents Ferencvaros and Juventus, tucked away a penalty in the fifth minute while Gerard Pique netted in the second half, glancing in a f

KYIV, November 4 (Reuters): Striker Alassane Plea scored a hat-trick as Borussia Moenchengladbach crushed their hosts Schakhtar Donetsk 6-0 on Tuesday to take over from them at the top of their group in the Champions League. Glabdach, who conceded late equalisers in their previous group matches against Inter Milan and Real Madrid, scored four in the first half, with two coming from the 27-year-old Plea, to kill off the game and eventually earn one of the largest away wins of th

SALZBURG, Austria, November 4 (Reuters): Bayern Munich came from behind to crush RB Salzburg 6-2 with two goals from Robert Lewandowski on Tuesday, stretching their record winning run in the Champions League to 14 consecutive games and leading their group by five points after three games. The Bavarians, who have won five titles in 2020 including the Champions League, went behind after only four minutes when Mergim Berisha was left completely unmarked inside the box to beat goal

MANCHESTER, England, November 4 (Reuters): Ferran Torres, Gabriel Jesus and Joao Cancelo were on target as Manchester City made it three wins out of three in Champions League Group C with a 3-0 win over Olympiakos at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday. The result leaves City three points clear of Porto at the top of the group, and a single point in the return fixture on Nov. 25 would secure progress for City to the knockout stage. Torres put City ahead in the 12th minute, playing

LIVERPOOL, England, October 28 (Reuters): Liverpool laboured to a 2-0 win over Denmark's Midtjylland on Tuesday as a goal from Diogo Jota and a Mohamed Salah penalty secured a hard-fought Champions League Group D victory at Anfield. The win came at a cost, however, as Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp suffered another defensive blow with Brazilian Fabinho limping off in the first half with what appeared to be a hamstring injury. Fabinho had been deputising for central defe

(Reuters): Joao Felix bagged a brace for Atletico Madrid as they survived a scare to complete a 3-2 Champions League Group A victory over Red Bull Salzburg and kick-start their European campaign at the Wanda Metropolitano stadium on Tuesday. Marcos Llorente had put Atletico ahead in the first half, but goals from Dominik Szoboszlai and Mergim Berisha swung the fixture in the favour of the visitors early in the second half. But the excellent Felix regained the initiative for

MARSEILLE, France, October 28 (Reuters): Manchester City were barely troubled as they claimed their second victory in Champions League Group C by beating Olympique de Marseille 3-0 at the Stade Velodrome on Tuesday. Ferran Torres, Ilkay Gundogan and Raheem Sterling found the back of the net as Pep Guardiola's side stayed top of the standings on six points, three ahead of Porto and Olympiakos. Marseille are bottom of the table on zero points after their 10th consecutive l

MOSCOW, October 28 (Reuters): Bayern Munich's Joshua Kimmich volleyed in a 79th-minute winner on Tuesday as they battled past hosts Lokomotiv Moscow 2-1 in their Champions League Group A match to extend their winning run in the competition to 13 consecutive games. Leon Goretzka headed them in front in the 13th minute but they squandered a string of chances to double their lead and also hit the post before Anton Miranchuk punished their wastefulness following a quick break f

SALZBURG, Austria, October 22 (Reuters): Salzburg let Lokomotiv Moscow off the hook when they were held to an entertaining 2-2 draw at home by the Russian side in the Champions League on Wednesday. The Austrian champions were leading 2-1 and completely in control only to be pegged back by an equaliser from substitute Vitali Lisakovich, who scored six minutes into his Champions League debut in the Group A game. Portugal forward Eder, scorer of the winning goal in the Euro 201

MUNICH, Germany, October 22 (Reuters): Winger Kingsley Coman scored twice and set up another goal as holders Bayern Munich crushed Atletico Madrid 4-0 in the Champions League Group A opener on Wednesday to stretch their winning run in the competition to 12 games. The France international put the hosts ahead with a fine effort in the 28th minute and then set up Leon Goretzka to fire in their second in the 41st. Fellow France international Corentin Tolisso killed off any Spani

MANCHESTER, England, October 22 (Reuters): Manchester City came from behind to make a winning start in Champions League Group C on Wednesday with a 3-1 victory over Porto at the Etihad Stadium. City had fallen behind to a fine 14th-minute solo strike from Luis Diaz but a Sergio Aguero penalty brought them level before second-half goals from Ilkay Gundogan and Ferran Torres secured the win. Pep Guardiola's side, defeated in the quarter-finals last season, struggled to fin

BERN, October 18 (Reuters): A condensed version of the Champions League group stage finally gets under way on Tuesday, with COVID-19-related disruptions an ever-present threat hanging over the competition. The 32-team contest will start one month later than usual, a knock-on effect of the pandemic interrupting last season for three months, although the group stage will finish as usual in early December with six matchdays squeezed into a 50-day period. It kicks off with a hea

VIENNA, October 4 (Reuters): Austrian side Salzburg have ordered a "team quarantine" and barred their players from taking part in national team matches over the next two weeks after three of them tested positive for COVID-19. Salzburg said in a statement on Sunday that the positive results showed up in the first round of tests carried out after they faced Israeli side Maccabi Tel Aviv in a Champions League playoff match on Wednesday. The club did not name the playe

SALONIKA, Greece, Septemebr 16 (Reuters): Former European Cup winners Benfica crashed out of the Champions League third qualifying round after a shock 2-1 defeat at PAOK Salonika on Tuesday as Serbia winger Andrija Zivkovic scored against his former club a week after leaving them. Dynamo Kiev also advanced to the playoff round with a 2-0 home win over Dutch side AZ Alkmaar, as did Belgians Gent after they beat visitors Rapid Vienna 2-1. PAOK'S reward is a two-legged

(Reuters): Former England skipper Wayne Rooney believes Paris St Germain have the speed and skill to exploit Bayern Munich's high defensive line in Sunday's Champions League final and punish them in a way Olympique Lyonnais could not. Lyon forwards Memphis Depay and Karl Toko Ekambi missed gilt-edged opportunities in the opening 16 minutes of their 3-0 defeat by Bayern in the semi-final on Wednesday and Rooney has warned that PSG's front three of Neymar, Kylian Mbap

LISBON, August 23 (Reuters): Paris St Germain striker Kylian Mbappe says he wants to make history for France by winning the country's first Champions League title in 27 years in Sunday's final against Bayern Munich. PSG beat Atalanta and RB Leipzig in the "final eight" in Lisbon, and Mbappe is feeling relaxed about the test against Bayern and the significance for French football. "This is exactly why I came here," he told reporters on Saturday. &q

LISBON, August 19 (Reuters): Kylian Mbappe said he is feeling similar vibes as during France's World Cup winning campaign in 2018 after Paris St Germain reached the Champions League final with an emphatic 3-0 win against RB Leipzig on Tuesday. "I feel the same vibes because we managed to create a group where everyone knows their importance and everyone do their job," the France striker told a news conference. "We do a lot of activities outside the pitch, m

LISBON, August 19 (Reuters): RB Leipzig had no chance against Paris St Germain in their Champions League semi-final on Tuesday, Leipzig coach Julian Nagelsmann said, as the German side's 3-0 loss sent them out of the competition. Leipzig, who had eliminated Tottenham Hotspur and Atletico Madrid to reach the last four, hardly got a chance throughout the game with the French champions in complete control. "We have to accept the result because we weren't able

LISBON, August 19 (Reuters): Paris St Germain reached their first ever Champions League final with a convincing 3-0 win over RB Leipzig on Tuesday, finally delivering the reward of the biggest game in European football for their Qatari backers. Goals from Marquinhos and Angel Di Maria put PSG 2-0 up at the interval and Juan Bernat added the third in the 56th minute for what was a comfortable victory at the Estadio da Luz. The French club, celebrating the 50th anniversary of