Barcelona fell even further into trouble with a thumping Champions League defeat at Benfica on Wednesday while holder Chelsea were beaten by Juventus but Cristiano Ronaldo grabbed a precious last-gap winner for Manchester United. Ronald Koeman’s Barcelona team is already looking at a real risk of an early exit from this season’s Champions League after suffering a 3-0 second loss in as many games in Group E and finishing with 10 men in Lisbon. after. Uruguay forward Darwin Nunez starred for Benfica, opening the scoring and then hitting the post early in the second half. He later completed the route from the penalty spot after a Sergio dest handball, while Rafa Silva in the middle also netted for the Portuguese East European Cup winners.
Eric Garcia was sent off to Barcelona, who has now conceded 11 goals in his last two visits to the Estadio da Luz, the scene of their 8-2 destruction at the hands of Bayern Munich in the 2020 quarter-finals.
Barca are at the bottom of their group, while Bayern secured a 5-0 home win over Dynamo Kiev after their victory at Camp Nou a fortnight ago, with Robert Lewandowski’s first-half brace setting the Bavarian on their way.
Lewandowski, who netted the opener from the penalty spot, now has 77 Champions League goals, third on the all-time list behind Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
Serge Gnabry, Leroy Sane and Eric Maxim Chopo-Motting added more goals after the break for a big Bayern.
The loss to Barcelona left Koeman – who took Benfica to the quarter-finals of the Champions League in 2006 – in an even more precarious position. He has made it to the knockout rounds in each of the last 17 seasons.
Koman said of his future, “I can’t say anything because I don’t know what the club thinks about it. We’ll see.”
Juventus impressed
Chelsea will still be expected to qualify for the last 16 despite a 1-0 loss to Juventus in Turin, with Federico Chiesa scoring the game’s only goal 10 seconds into the second half.
The star of Italy’s Euro 2020-winning side assisted Federico Bernardeschi to beat Edouard Mendy and give Massimiliano Allegri’s team a second consecutive win in Group H.
Juve are still friendly for life since Allegri’s return as coach and Ronaldo’s departure, but it could be an early result for them against the holders.
“We gave a cheap target and it made things more complicated for ourselves,” said Chelsea coach Thomas Tuchel.
Chelsea started the trophy’s defense with a 1–0 win over Zenit St Petersburg, and the Russian champions bounced back after beating Malmö 4–0.
Claudinho, who won Olympic gold with Brazil in Tokyo, opened the scoring before Daler Kuzayev, Alexei Sutormin and Wendell scored in the second half.
United bounce back
Ronaldo scored in the final five minutes of stoppage time to give United a 2-1 win over Villarreal at Old Trafford.
Jesse Lingard set up Ronaldo well to score his record-extending 136th goal in the competition as United bounced back from their last loss to the Young Boys in Bern.
Alex Telles had earlier taken the hosts back to the hour mark with a brilliant first-time volley from a Bruno Fernandes delivery for their first goal in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side.
Paco Alcacer gave Villarreal the lead in a rematch of last season’s Europa League final, which was won by the Spanish outfit on penalties.
“We had to throw caution to the wind and got lucky in the end,” Solskjaer said. “When you get Cristiano on the pitch there’s always a chance.”
United and Young Boys are one point behind Group F leaders Atalanta, who beat Swiss champions Matteo Pessina 1-0 in Italy with a goal.
Teenage German star Karim Adeyemi scored two penalties, one in each half, as Red Bull Salzburg beat French champions Lille 2–1 to top Group G with four points.
Burak Yilmaz pulled back once for Lille, but he pushed the section while Sevilla snapped a 1–1 draw at Wolfsburg when a late Ivan Rakitic penalty canceled Renato Stefan’s opener for the Germans. Dia, who sent Joshua Gilavogui.
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