Champions League gets off to a rollicking start

It was redemption time as the European giants got the field last night to renew their old rivalries in the UEFA Champions League. Almost all the big teams including Manchester United, Real Madrid, Manchester City, and Bayern Munich made a winning start against their respective opponents on the inaugural day of the Champions League 2013 to set the tone for the whole tournament.

 Real Madrid was the most dominating among all others. On their visit to Galatasaray, Real routed the home side 6-1 with an incredible second half performance. Isco opened the scoring for the visitors in the 33^rd minute of the match and it all ended up with Christiano Ronaldo netting a ridiculous goal in the injury time to complete his hat-trick. Benzema scored the other two goals as Real set off their Champions League campaign in style. Umut Bulut netted in the lone consolation goal for the hosts.

If Real Madrid had made such a blistering opening, their age-old rival Bayern Munich set off their Champions League journey with a clinical 3-0 win over CSKA Moscow. The defending champions began the match in style as Jordi Alba opened the scoring as early as in the 4^th minute. Mandzukic and Robben were the other two who were on target against their tricky Russian opponent.

Moving on to England. Manchester United had a winning start to the tournament as they beat Germany’s Bayer 04 Leverkusen 4-2 in their home ground. Wayne Rooney opened the scoring for the English Champions in the 22^nd minute of the match and added another one in the 70^th minute of the match as he celebrated his 200^th goal for the club in front of the home crowd. Robin Van Persie and Antonio Valencia chipped in with one goal each to see the Red Devils through. Though the defensive lapse let the visitors to score a couple it was over all a solid performance from the hosts to give David Moyes his first European victory as United manager.

Manchester City also registered a victory in their opening game when they defeated Viktoria Plzen 3-0 away from home. However it was not the day for the Italian giants Juventus as they ended their first match with a 1-1 stalemate against FC Copenhagen in the away fixture. Shakhtar Donetsk beat Real Sociedad 2-0 and Paris Saint Germain beat Olympiakos 4-1 away from home to begin this edition of the tournament with a win.

After such an exhilarating opening day, all eyes will be on the Spanish king Barcelona and 2011-UEFA Champions League winner Chelsea when take the field on Wednesday on their home turf against their respective opponents. AC Milan will also be playing their first match at San Siro against Scottish Celtic.

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About Argha Ghosh

An ardent follower of sports and die-hard Manchester United fan, Argha's ultimate dream is to watch a Manchester derby from the Stretford End at the Old Trafford.