Whether Cristiano Ronaldo is sad remains debatable, but Real Madrid is surely happy after opening the UEFA Champions League with a thrilling 3-2 win over Manchester City.
Madrid dominated the majority of the match with 35 attempts at the net to Manchester's 10 but the first half was scoreless and the goals came in a flurry near the end. Manchester's Ezin Dzeko scored at the 68 minute mark off a strong counterattack but Marcelo answered at the 76 minute mark with a nice chip outside the box to tie it at one. Then Aleksandar Kolarov of Manchester scored five minutes from time to secure a 2-1 lead for Manchester. But the lead was lost just two minutes later when Karim Benzema blasted a shot past keeper Joe Hart to level the score. Hart should have stopped the shot.
And then came the time for Ronaldo to make his statement. After missing a prime scoring chance earlier, the Portuguese keeper ran into the area from the left in the 90th minute, curved to the center and rifled a shot that Hart could have had. Ronaldo did celebrate this goal by sprawling across the field in a sign of elation. His coach Jose Mourinho also slid on to the field to show his joy.
The win puts Madrid in a tie for first with Borussia Dortmund who managed an equally thrilling 1-0 win over Ajax after a 87th minute goal from Robert Lewandowski.
Group A
In Group A Portuguese club FC Porto won 2-0 against Dinamo Zagreb with goals from Lucho Gonalzez (40th) and Steven Defour (90+1). Paris St.-Germain (PSG) managed the pressure of their first UCL game in ages and won 4-1 over Dynamo Kiev. Zlatan Ibrahimovic (19th minute), Thiago Silva (29th), Alex (32nd), and Javier Pastore (90+1) scored for PSG while Miguel Veloso scored for Dynamo Kiev in the 87th minute.
Group B
Arsenal managed a 2-1 win against Montpelier with all the goals coming in the first 20 mintues. Younes Belhanda scored a penalty in the 9th minute to give the French side a 1-0 lead but goals from Lukas Podolski and Gervinho in the 16th and 18th minutes gave Arsenal a lead they would never relinquish. The are joined by Schalke 04 at the top of the group after the German squad managed a 2-1 win over Greek club Olympiakos. Schlake got goals from Benedikt Howedes (41') and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (59') while Olympiakos got a 58th minute from Djamel Abdoun.
Group C
AC Milan underperformed in a 0-0 draw with Anderlecht while Malaga dominated Zenit St. Petersburg with two goals from Isco and an extra tally from Javier Saviola. The up and coming Spaniard Isco scored in the 3rd and 76th minute while Saviola added a tally in the 13th minute for the biggest upset of the night.
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