SUPER Eagles star Samuel Chukwueze was left on the bench for 90 minutes last night as his AC Milan side were well beaten 3-1 at San Siro by Liverpool on the opening night of the new-look UEFA Champions League.
Liverpool recovered superbly from Saturday’s shock 1-0 home defeat to Nottingham Forest in the Premier League to ease past Milan at San Siro, with centre-backs Ibrahima Konate and Virgil van Dijk scoring.
The Reds came back from Christian Pulisic’s third-minute early opening strike for the Serie A giants, and Dominik Szoboszlai’s first club goal since March secured the result in the second half.
In Germany, Harry Kane led Bayern Leverkusen’s 9-2 thumping of Dinamo Zagreb with four goals.
The England striker set the ball rolling with the first goal from the spot after 19 minutes and a second-half hat-trick took his tally to 33 Champions League goals, the most of any Englishman as he overtook Wayne Rooney, who had 30 goals.
The comfortable scoreline masked a difficult period after the break when Bayern lost goalkeeper Manuel Neuer to injury and Zagreb rallied, scoring two goals in two minutes to cut the gap to 3-2 before capitulating.
At the Santiago Bernabeu, Kylian Mbappe reached five goals for the season in seven appearances across all competitions by opening the scoring, when he raced into space at the start of the second half in Real Madrid’s 3-1 victory over Stuttgart.
It was his first game in the competition for the Los Blancos.
Antonio Rudiger headed home in the 83rd minute for the record 15-time champions after Deniz Undav had levelled Mbappe’s opener just seconds into the second half.
Endrick, another debutant, wrapped up Madrid’s win with a low drive in stoppage time.
In Italy, Juventus recorded a 3-1 victory over PSV Eindhoven at the Allianz Stadium.
Kenan Yildiz, 19, scored his first Champions League goal in the win, becoming the youngest Juventus goal scorer in the competition. The record was previously held by Alessandro Del Piero.
Weston Mckennie and Nicolas Gonzalez also found the back of the net in the victory.
Aston Villa dominated Young Boys in Switzerland with a 3-0 victory to mark their return to the competition after 41 years. Youri Tielemans, Jacob Ramsey and Amadou Onana got the goals for the English side.
In Portugal, Sporting Lisbon defeated 10-man Lille 2-0 at home, courtesy of goals from Viktor Gyokeres and Zeno Debast.
RESULTS
Juventus 3-1 PSV Eindhoven
Young Boys 0-3 Aston Villa
Real Madrid 3-1 Stuttgart
Bayern Munich 9-2 Dinamo Zagreb
Sporting Lisbon 2-0 Lille
AC Milan 1-3 Liverpool
