Madrid, Oct 14 (IANS) Pablo Barrios and Ademola Lookman scored to lay the foundations for a deserved Atletico Madrid 2-0 win over Manchester United in the UEFA Champions League.
Atletico needed less than a minute to open the scoring after Giuliano Simeone collected a long ball and set up Barrios to side-foot home.
Manchester United saw Bryan Mbeumo fire wide before Marcus Rashford came inches away from connecting with Lisandro Martinez’s ball from the back.
Atletico’s Johnny Cardoso saw his effort from the edge of the area ruled out after VAR detected an earlier handball by Marcos Llorente, while Julian Alvarez hit the post at the start of the second half.
Manchester United’s hopes suffered a major setback in the 74th minute when Leny Yoro was shown a red card.
Lookman doubled the lead five minutes later, scoring from close range after goalkeeper Senne Lammens had saved Jonathan David’s initial effort.
Elsewhere, Villarreal beat Napoli 3-1 after coming from behind.
Napoli took the lead in the eighth minute when Amir Rrahmani scored from a loose ball in the home penalty area.
Villarreal responded well, with Georges Mikautadze slotting home from a narrow angle in the 23rd minute. Santiago Mourino put Villarreal ahead three minutes later after collecting the ball outside the penalty area and scoring with a powerful shot.
A thumping effort from Tani Oluwaseyi in the 86th minute sealed Villarreal’s first Champions League win since its quarterfinal victory over Bayern Munich in April 2022.
In another match, Brajan Gruda struck in the second half as RB Leipzig edged PSV Eindhoven 1-0 to claim its first Champions League victory of the season, with goalkeeper Maarten Vandevoordt saving a penalty to keep the German side in contention.
The breakthrough arrived in the 75th minute when PSV failed to clear David Raum’s corner. Gruda collected the loose ball outside the penalty area and curled a deflected shot into the left corner.
–IANS
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