Bayern Munich 4 PSV Eindhoven 1
Bayern Munich crushed Dutch side PSV Eindhoven 4-1 in Champions League Group D on Wednesday 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 with goals from Thomas Muller and Joshua Kimmich turned into a nervous affair after the visitors pulled a goal back through Luciano Narsingh before halftime.
The German champions, however, second in the group on six points behind leaders Atletico Madrid who have nine, kept their cool and Robert Lewandowski headed in the third goal on the hour.
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.
“We felt that in the past few games something was missing and we tried to change it today,” Kimmich said.
“We started really well but made our life difficult by losing possession too often.”
PSG 3 FC Basel 0
Paris St Germain edged closer to the Champions League‘s last 16 as goals from Angel Di Maria, Lucas and Edinson Cavani secured a flattering 3-0 home win over FC Basel in Group A on Wednesday.
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.
FK Rostov 0 Atlético Madrid 1
Atletico Madrid laboured to a 1-0 win over Rostov on Wednesday to maintain their 100 per cent record in Champions League 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 hot 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.
La 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.
Napoli 2 Besiktas 3
Vincent Aboubakar headed a late goal, his second of the game, to give Besiktas a shock 3-2 win away at Napoli in the Champions League 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.
Dynamo Kyiv 0 Benfica 2
The pressure continues to mount on Dynamo Kiev boss Sergei Rebrov after Eduardo Salvio’s early penalty and a second-half effort from Franco Cervi gave Benfica a 2-0 win in Ukraine.
