Champions League A-D: Welbeck Stars in Arsenal Win, Basel Edge Liverpool

Posted by: Omaku Cephas on October 2, 2014

Match Day 2 fixtures of the Uefa Champions League resumed on Wednesday, producing nineteen goals across eight fixtures.

Arsenal returned to winning ways against Turkish club Galatasaray with summer signing Danny Welbeck grabbing his first career hat-trick at the Emirate Stadium.
“I forgot the matchball! I’ll get it after,” Welbeck joked after the win.
“My last hat-trick was for Manchester United’s reserves and I’m trying to score goals. I am getting into positions and it is paying off.”

Danny Welbeck Scores Arsenal’s Second Against Galatasaray. Image: Getty.

The fixture also coincided wit Arsene Wenger’s 18th anniversary as manager of the Premier League club; the emphatic scoreline after all was worth the occasion. Markus Rosenberg became Malmo’s first ever goalscorer in the Champions League as the Swedish debutantes downed Olympiakos in the Greek club’s 100th Champions League game.
Group A
Malmo 2-0 Olympiacos
Rosenberg’s brace gave Malmo their first European Cup win. The ex-West Brom forward pounced on a long ball in the visitors’ half, snuck between goalkeeper Roberto and defender Alberto Botia to slot home at the second attempt.
He doubled the hosts’ lead on 82 minutes, when he slotted into the top corner with aplomb from midfielder Pawel Cibicki’s lovely square pass.
The win leaves Group A evenly poised, as Juventus lost for the first time this season at Atletico Madrid.
Atletico Madrid 1-0 Juventus
Last season’ finalists Atletico needed a 75th-minute strike by Arda Turan to steer ahead of visiting Italian champions Juve at the Vicente Calderon.
The Spanish La Liga champions’ coach Diego Simeone, who was returning from a game ban when his side lost 3-2 at Olympiakos, motivated ‘Los Roji Blancos’ to just their second win over Juve in six meetings.
Juventus goalkeeper Giggi Buffon made his 120th appearance in European competition in this game.
Group B
Basel 1-0 Liverpool
Liverpool are yet to prove they have the quality to withstand top European opponents on their return after five-year hiatus.

Marco Streller’s Second-Half Strike Help Basel Beat Liverpool.

Brendan Rodgers’ men, coming on the back of a narrow 2-1 win over debutantes Ludogorets Razgrad, lost at St. Jakob-Park in Switzerland. The ‘Reds” defencive frailties were exposed in the 53rd minute as neither Martin Skrtel nor Dejan Lovren could deal with a routine corner; Simon Mignolet spilling the ball into the six-yard box for Marco Streller to sweep home.
Ludogorets 1-2 Real Madrid
After scoring Real’s 1000th goal in European competitions a fortnight ago, second half sub Karim Benzema needed only ten minutes on the pitch to score the match winner at the Vasil Levski Stadium- Ludogorets adopted home as their 6,000-seater ground does not meet Uefa standards.
The defending champions, who beat Basel 5-1 in their opener, earlier needed a second spot-kick from Cristiano Ronaldo to equalise Marcelinho’s early opener.
Ludogorets goalkeeper Vladislav Stoyanov denied the Portuguese winger’s first attempt from 12 yards.

Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale Celebrates Real’s Opener. Image: AFP.

Real have six points from two games while Basel and Liverpool are each locked on three points with the former second on the standings. Bulgarian minnows Ludogorets are yet to record a point. Group C
Zenit Saint-Petersburg 0-0 Monaco
Zenit maintained their unbeaten start to the season as Monaco snatched a point from their trip to the Russian league leaders on Wednesday.
Both clubs, who had won their opening Uefa Champions League games, could not break the deadlock after 90 minutes. The draw means Zenit are unbeaten in 15 games in all competitions this season- 13 of those a win.
Yannick Carrasco came up with the best chance of the game in the 73rd minute, but his deflected shot came off the post, leaving both sides to settle for a point apiece.
Bayer Leverkusen 3-1 Benfica
Stefan Kiessling and Son Heung-Min gave Bayer Leverkusen a 2-0 half-time lead at the Bay Arena.
Eduardo Salvio pulled one back for Benfica but less than 200 seconds later Hakan Calhanoglu scored a penalty to restore Leverkusen’s two-goal cushion.
Leverkusen now trail group leaders Zenit and Monaco in third place. Benfica, who- like their Match Day 2 opponent- lost their previous game, are pointless.
Group D
Arsenal 4-1 Galatasaray
Welbeck and Alexis Sanchez gave a befitting anniversary present to manager Arsene Wenger, as the ‘Gunners’ secured their sixth win in ten meetings with Turkish opponents on Wednesday- the remainder four were draws.
The £16m summer signing from Manchester United beat an offside trap to collect a well-timed pass from Sanchez and poke the ball with his right foot through Fernando Muslera’s legs.
Welbeck doubled the hosts’ lead 8 minutes later, capitalising on some horrible defending by Gala; he held off the challenges of Felipe Melo to plant his perfect shot across Muslera into the bottom corner.
Sanchez added the third with four minutes left to the break. The Chilean striker covered space down the left to meet the outstanding Mesut Ozil’s through pass and cuts inside to curl home from 15 yards.
Englishman Welbeck completed his hat-trick on 52 minutes, timing his run perfectly well to meet Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s through pass and confidently lifted the ball over Muslera into the net.
The 23-year-old becomes the sixth English player to score a hat-trick in the Champions League. His predecessors: Mike Newell, Andrew Cole, Michael Owen, Alan Shearer and Wayne Rooney. He is also the third Arsenal player to grab Champions League treble after Thierry Henry (2002) and Nicklas Bendtner (2010).
Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny got his marching order few minutes later for coming hastily off his line to impede striker Burak Yilmaz.
Arsenal then conceded only for the second time against a Turkish opponent, as Burak blazed his shot into the corner beyond David Ospina, who had come on for Sanchez.
With just over 25 minutes to go, ten-man Arsenal held on to maximum point to trail leaders Borussia Dortmund.
Anderlecht 0-3 Borussia Dortmund
Italian striker Ciro Immobile scored Dortmund’s second fastest goal in Europe from Shinji Kagawa’s assist.

Adrian Ramos’ Brace Completed a 3-0 Thrashing of Anderletch.

Adrian Ramos’ double completed a 3-0 thrashing of Anderletch, whose only solitary point came in the opening day draw in Istanbul.