Bayern Munich launched their bid to become the first Champions League winners to successfully defend the title as Real Madrid scored six of Tuesday’s 30 goals, the most on an opening night since the current format began in 1999/2000.
The defending champions wasted no time getting their campaign off on the right foot through David Alaba’s superb fourth-minute free-kick against CSKA Moscow. Mario Mandžukić headed Josep Guardiola’s side two up before the break and 2013 final hero Arjen Robben’s cool volley sealed a 3-0 Group D win. Manchester City also showed their intention to make it out of a group after two failures with a 3-0 success at Viktoria Plzeň ahead of the visit of Bayern in a fortnight.
In David Moyes’s first champions league group stage, Manchester United comfortably beat Bayern Leverkusen 4-2 at Old Trafford, Wayne Rooney’s two goals made him only the fourth player in Manchester United history to score 200 goals for the Red Devils. Also in Group A, FC Shakhtar Donetsk won 2-0 at returning Real Sociedad through two from Alex Teixeira. United go to Shakhtar in 2 weeks.
In Turkey, Real Madrid served notice of their ambition by thrashing Galatasaray 6-1 with Cristiano Ronaldo scoring the first hat-trick of this champions league season. But it was not all good news for Madrid as Iker Casillas had to be replaced by Diego Lopez in the first half through a rib injury sustained in an earlier collision with Sergio Ramos.
The big shock of the night was in Denmark when Juventus was held to a 1-1 draw by FC Copenhagen in the other Group B game.
Paris Saint-Germain were made to work by hosts Olympiacos but Thiago Motta headed in two Ezequiel Lavezzi corners, on 68 and 73 minutes, to set them on their way to a 4-1 Group C victory. In the other tie Benfica beat Anderlecht 2-0.
