By Abdulrahman Yahaya
Italian club Como enjoyed their Champions League debut as they thrashed RB Leipzig 4-1 at home, but fellow debutants Sabah suffered a 4-0 pummelling at Manchester United on Thursday night.
German giants Bayern Munich started their Champions League campaign with an emphatic 5-0 thrashing of Norway’s Bodo/Glimt while Fenerbahçe made their return to the competition with a 1-1 draw at home with AS Roma.
Cesc Fàbregas-led Como showed no sign of being debutants as they opened the scoring against RB Leipzig in the 15th minute through Marti Baturina’s strike.
Goals from Taso Douvikas, Diao made it 3-0 for the hosts. Maksimovic pulled one back for RB Leipzig before Maximo Perrone scored the fourth for Como in stoppage time.
“It was a great night for the team and for the city,” Como’s Baturina said.
“Of course, it’s a beautiful feeling, I’m really proud of myself and the whole team and we need to continue like this because this is only the beginning,” he added.
Azerbaijan champions Sabah did not enjoy their Champions League debut as Manchester United crushed them 4-0 at Old Trafford.
Matheus Cunha opened the scoring for United in the 27th minute, before goals from Bruno Fernandes, Benjamin Sesko and Lisandro Martinez completed the rout for United.
It’s nice to have a clean sheet,” Carrick said.
“I thought some of our attacking players were fantastic; some of the football we played was really good: dangerous on transition, and we defended for the most part really well.”
Vincent Kompany’s Bayern were held to a 0-0 draw after the first 45 minutes, but Jamal Musial opened the floodgate with a brilliant strike two minutes into the second half.
Goals from Harry Kane, Alphonso Davies and a brace by Micheal Olise completed the rout at the Allianz Arena.
In Istanbul, Roma went into the break with a 1-0 lead against Fenerbache, after Bryan Cristante’s goal in the 39th minute.
But host Fenerbahçe restored parity three minutes into the second half when Mason Greenwood slipped a pass through Archie Brown to put it beyond the Roma goalkeeper.
The game ended 1-1 as both teams failed to find a winner for the rest of the game.
In other results, PSV Eindhoven drew 1-1 at home to Shakhtar Donetsk while Lens scored twice in stoppage time to defeat host Slavia Prague 3-2.(Reuters/NAN)(www.nannews.ng)
Edited by Joseph Edeh