There were lots of thrills in Champions League football on Tuesday evening, with 20 goals scored in eight games across Europe.
Roma’s Francesco Totti became the oldest player to score a Champions League goal, grabbing his 38th European goal at the age of 38 plus 3 days against Manchester City.
The Roma captain, who celebrated his birthday on Saturday, found the net in the 23rd minute at the Etihad Stadium, surpassing Ryan Giggs’s record.
The former Manchester United FC midfielder was aged 37 years 290 days when he scored at SL Benfica on matchday one in 2011/12.
Barcelona’s Xavi Hernandez came on for the final 20 minutes of his side’s 3-2 loss at Paris St- Germain to break the record for highest number of Champions League appearances in his 143rd game.
Xavi now leads the likes of Raul (142), Ryan Giggs (141), Iker Casillas (140) and Clarence Seedorf (125) in the list for most appearance in Europe’s elite competition.
Group E
CSKA Moscow 0-1 Bayern Munich
Bayern Munich made it two wins from two after a narrow win at Russian Champions CSKA Moscow in the European Champions League on Tuesday.
Thomas Muller’s 21st-minute spot-kick separated both side at an empty Arena Khimki, following a Uefa sanction for crowd disturbance during the group game with Viktoria Plzen last season.
The win takes the German Bundesliga champions’ points tally to six after two rounds of matches. CSKA are yet to record a point.
Manchester City 1-1 AS Roma
Premier League champions Manchester City have complicated their chances of progressing to a second successive last-16 appearance, after failing to earn maximum point at home to Italian Serie A opponent Roma.
Former City defender Maicon pulled Sergio Aguero in the goal area to concede an early penalty. The Argentine striker stepped up to clinically slot the ball inside the net.
But Totti’s moment of history denied the hosts a first win of the present campaign, chipping over the head of Joe Hart after being played in by Radja Nainggolan.
City have a solitary point after two round of matches while Roma trail Bayern on 4 points in second place.
Group F
Apoel Nicosia 1-1 Ajax Amsterdam
Lucas Andersen opened scores for the visitors on 28 minutes but Gustavo Manducar leveled for the Cyprus hosts three minutes later from the penalty spot.
It is the Dutch champions’ successive draw in two matches following their opening day home game against PSG.
Paris St-Germain 3-2 Barcelona
Barcelona lost for the first time this season away to PSG after a high-octane 90 minutes in Paris.
Brazilian defender David Luiz poked home a free-kick in the 10th minute but Lionel Messi restored parity two minutes later with his 68th Champions League goal and the La Liga giants’ 500th.
The Argentine skipper and Andres Iniesta exchanged passes in the Catalans’ first attack after conceding, allowing the latter to prod into the far corner.
Marco Verratti powered home a header from Thiago Motta’s corner to help the hosts regain the lead on 27 minutes.
Frenchman Blaise Matuidi doubled PSG’s lead nine minutes after the interval, sidefooting through the legs of keeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen from a cross.
Neymar responded almost immediately again, smashing home from Dani Alves’s ball into the box.
The French Ligue 1 champions are now unbeaten in 30 European home games, dating back to November 2006.
Group G
Schalke 1-1 NK Maribor
Klaas-Jan Huntelaar’s strike rescued a draw for Schalke at home to Maribor following Damjan Bohar’s first-half opener.
Sporting Lisbon 0-1 Chelsea
Chelsea secured their first win of the two-week-old Champions League season far away in Portugal.
The Match Day 2 fixture marked Jose Mourinho’s return to the ground where his managerial journey all started and the 51-year-old left his home city with a deserved result.
Midfielder Nemanja Matic’s header in the 34th minute from a Cesc Fabregas free-kick ended Sporting’s 16 match unbeaten record in home European ties.
The win saw the Premier League leaders tighten their grasp on the group’s leadership with four points from a possible six.
Maribor and Schalke both have two points apiece, but the Slovenians are ranked higher on head-to-head basis.
Sporting Lisbon’s solitary point came from their 1-1 opening draw at Maribor
Chelsea skipper John Terry made his 100th Champions League appearance in this fixture.
Group H
Bate Borisov 2-1 Athletic Bilbao
Athletic Bilbao became the first visitor to lose at BATE’s new Borisov Arena on Tuesday evening.
Defender Dzyanis Polyakov finished emphatically at the far post on 19 minutes to get the hosts in the ascendancy. Aleksandr Karnitski doubled the Basque club’s lead in the 41st minute.
Athletic’s Aritz Aduriz struck just before the break to reduce the Spanish outfits arrears.
Shakhter Donetsk 2-2 FC Porto
Shakhter were forced to host Porto in front of 33,217 fans at the Arena Lviv, over 1,000 kilometres away from their original home in Donetsk as conflict in Eastern Ukraine rages on.
But the circumstances surrounding the day’s fixture did not deter the hosts from claiming the lead on 51 minutes, courtesy of Alex Teixeira.
Luiz Adriano doubled Mircea Lucescu’s side’s lead in the 85th minute, but the visitors’ captain Jackson Martinez pulled one back 3 minutes later before leaving it all squared in the 4th minute of injury-time.
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