Reuters
Paris, Sept 15: Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero scored a hat-trick as coach Pep Guardiola maintained his 100 per cent record at the club with a commanding 4-0 victory against Borussia Moenchengladbach in their rearranged Champions League Group C opener at home Wednesday.
But it was not easy for defending champions Real Madrid as they began their campaign to retain the title. Two late goals by Cristiano Ronaldo and Alvaro Morata helped them scrape through 2-1 against Sporting Lisbon.
In another game, Leicester City returned to European competition after 55 years with a 3-0 win away at Club Brugge. The EPL champions could not have hoped for a better start as a brace from Riyad Mahrez and Marc Albrighton secured them an emphatic 3-0 victory in this Group G encounter.
Manchester City immediately took control of the game at the Etihad, which was postponed Tuesday due to heavy rain, and Aguero gave them the lead in the eighth minute when he lifted a cross from Aleksandar Kolarov high into the Moenchengladbach net.
The Argentina striker doubled the home side’s lead in the 28th minute when he sent Moenchengladbach goalkeeper Yann Sommer the wrong way from the penalty spot. The Argentine completed his hat-trick in the 77th minute from close range after being set clear by Raheem Sterling and Kelechi Iheanacho made it 4-0 in stoppage time.
At the Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid, Real were in for a shock as Brazilian Bruno Cesar gave the visitors a surprise yet deserved lead in the 47th minute as he pounced on an indecision in the Real back line.
Ronaldo however, denied his Portuguese boyhood club a famous win by scoring an equaliser from a free-kick in the 89th minute just when it seemed Madrid could, sensationally, lose their opening game in Group F. Morata then headed home deep in injury time to complete the fightback.
“We didn’t start the game well but Real Madrid are famous for comebacks like these and we leave here very happy,” said Morata. “We always believed in ourselves and we proved that you can always win a game until the referee blows the final whistle.”
Leicester were always the dominant side in the game against Brugge and took the lead when Albrighton seized on a misplaced header from a long throw to score in the fifth minute.
The goal secured his position in the club’s history as their first-ever scorer in the competition, and their first in Europe since 2000. “It was some feeling, something I never thought I’d achieve,” said Albrighton. “There is no reason why we can’t win this competition. People said we couldn’t win the Premier League but just to be this far is fantastic.”
The game was effectively settled as a contest on 29 minutes when Mahrez curled a superb free-kick into the net after veteran defender Timmy Simons had hauled down Jamie Vardy on the edge of the area. He then completed the rout in the 61st minute converting a penalty.
