VALENCIA, Spain — Cristiano Ronaldo was supposed to be the missing piece in Juventus’ bid to win the Champions League.
But his first match in the competition for his new club lasted less than half an hour on Wednesday as he was sent off after appearing to pull at an opponent’s hair.
Juventus still went on to win 2-0 at Valencia, thanks to two penalties.
Ronaldo was dismissed in the 29th minute after tangling with Jeison Murillo. After Murillo went down inside the area, the Portugal forward gestured for his opponent to get up, then put his hand on the Valencia defender’s head and appeared to tug his hair. Referee Felix Brych showed Ronaldo a straight red card after discussing with his assistant behind the goal.
Ronaldo looked baffled and kept professing his innocence and was clearly distraught as he left the pitch in tears, still shaking his head.
It was his first red card in 154 Champions League games, and the decision means he could miss a return to Old Trafford when Juventus plays Manchester United next month.
Juventus plays Young Boys next in the competition before a double header with Manchester United, with the first match in England on Oct. 23. The Italian club could appeal the red card decision.
Despite playing more than an hour with 10 men, Juventus eased to victory in Spain.
Mario Mandzukic and Sami Khedira had already missed glaring opportunities before Ronaldo’s dismissal and, after a shaky few minutes following the red card, Juventus got back into its stride and took the lead on the stroke of halftime.
Joao Cancelo hit the crossbar and was then fouled by Daniel Parejo as he tried to get on the rebound.
Miralem Pjanic struck the penalty into the bottom right corner and did the same six minutes after the break when Brych awarded Juventus another spot kick after Murillo brought down Leonardo Bonucci.
Despite the numerical advantage, Valencia posed little threat going forward but almost grabbed a consolation in stoppage time when it was given a penalty of its own. But Wojciech Szczesny parried Parejo’s spot kick, which was awarded after Daniele Rugani was adjudged to have elbowed Gabriel Paulista.
Real Madrid starts life after Ronaldo with win over RomaMADRID — Life in the Champions League without Cristiano Ronaldo began for Real Madrid with a comfortable 3-0 win over Roma on Wednesday.
Francisco "Isco" Alarcon, Gareth Bale and Mariano Diaz took care of the scoring in Ronaldo’s absence, securing the opening Group G victory for the three-time defending champions.
Madrid is playing the Champions League without Ronaldo for the first time since 2009, when the star forward arrived to lead the club to four European titles. Ronaldo played his first Champions League game for Juventus on Wednesday and was sent off with a straight red card in the first half.
It was a disappointing opener for Roma, which is coming off a semifinal appearance last season.
Manchester City humbled in loss to LyonMANCHESTER, England — Manchester City’s expensively-assembled team was humbled by Lyon in the Champions League on Wednesday, losing 2-1 at the start of its quest to win European football’s biggest prize for the first time.
Banned from the touchline and unable to communicate with the bench, City manager Pep Guardiola watched from the stands as the Premier League champions were easily picked apart by the French visitors at the start of the group stage.
Errors by midfielder Fernandinho led to both Lyon goals, typifying how sloppy City was against a team that finished third in the French league last season and was even held to a draw at the weekend by 10-man Caen.
When a pass by the Brazilian midfielder was intercepted around the halfway line, Lyon charged forward. Nabil Fekir sent in a cross from the left that evaded Fabian Delph’s swinging legs, allowing Maxwel Cornet to slot it home in the 26th minute. Delph held his head in his hands as the consequences of his mistake became clear.
City’s troubles deepened when Fernandinho was caught in possession again. Memphis Depay set Fekir on a run and the forward doubled Lyon’s lead in the 43rd.
City pulled one back in the 67th when Bernardo Silva scored from substitute Leroy Sane’s cutback. But the attacking threat was too patchy from a City side that won the Premier League with a record 100 points only four months ago.
But City fans still have a fraught relationship with the competition the club sees as its main target after a decade under Abu Dhabi ownership.
The Champions League anthem was again booed by the crowd — reflecting to ongoing bitterness over UEFA sanctioning the club for breaching spending rules — and there were swathes of empty seats in the Etihad Stadium.
Pogba scores 2 in Manchester United’s win at Young BoysBERN, Switzerland — Game-winning displays like Paul Pogba’s in a 3-0 victory for Manchester United over Young Boys should help to improve his relations with coach Jose Mourinho.
Pogba scored twice late in the first half Wednesday to get United off to a smooth start in the Champions League against the group-stage newcomer.
A curling shot in the 35th minute and an assured penalty in the 44th — after a trademark slow-trot approach — showed Pogba at his most elegant.
Pogba’s form cheered Mourinho on the touchline after an uneasy early season between them since the team’s signature player returned from winning the World Cup with France.
United went three goals up in the 66th when Pogba surged through the midfield and teed up Anthony Martial, who also had tense pre-season exchanges with Mourinho. Martial’s shot took a deflection off defender Mohamed Ali Camara.
Camara’s eventful evening included testing David De Gea with an early long-range strike, hitting a post with a second-half shot from a corner, and being beaten by Pogba’s quick feet that created space to score the opening goal.
The penalty was awarded for a handball awarded against Young Boys defender Kevin Mbabu for blocking Luke Shaw’s cross.
The result dispelled Mourinho’s doubts expressed to UEFA this month about playing Champions League games on artificial turf.
Still, Mourinho said the surface should not be an excuse for his players who did have uneasy moments before Pogba stepped up.
Making his United debut, 19-year-old right-back Diogo Dalot slipped on the plastic pitch to give winger Christian Fassnacht a shooting chance that was blocked.
A loser on its two previous Champions League games in Switzerland, both at Basel, United next welcomes Valencia to Old Trafford on Oct. 2.
Also in Group H, Pogba’s former team Juventus won 2-0 at Valencia despite a first-half red card for Cristiano Ronaldo, the former United star.
Renato Sanches scores on his Benfica return as Bayern winsLISBON, Portugal — Renato Sanches scored his first goal for Bayern Munich on his return to Benfica to give the German club a 2-0 win in their Champions League opener on Wednesday.
Sanches started and finished a well-worked move to net Bayern’s second goal in the 54th minute. He first powered his way through the midfield and passed to Robert Lewandowski on the left. The ball made its way to Franck Ribery and James Rodriguez, who crossed for Sanches to score from close range.
"I’m so happy to come back to Lisbon and to play this game is special for me," said Sanches, who was applauded by the home supporters after scoring his first goal in a competitive game since January 2016. "I just want to say thank you to the Benfica fans."
Lewandowski had given the five-time European champions an early lead, converting Bayern’s first real chance after Ribery and David Alaba combined to set him up.
Arjen Robben could have added to the score minutes later but failed to beat Benfica goalkeeper Odisseas Vlachodimos in a one-on-one. He was denied again five minutes before the break, when Vlachodimos deflected the Dutch winger’s effort over the bar.
Eduardo Salvio had the home side’s best chance of the half, but Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer saved his shot.
Sanches, who moved from Benfica to Bayern after the 2016 European Championship, ended his former side’s hopes of an upset and gave Bayern coach Niko Kovac a winning start on his debut in the competition.
The Portuguese midfielder was making his first start for Bayern since returning from a season on loan at Swansea.
"You have to remember he’s a young player that left his country, that left his family," Kovac said of Sanches’ difficulties in settling in Munich.
Tagliafico scores twice as Ajax beats AEK AthensAMSTERDAM — Defender Nicolas Tagliafico scored twice Wednesday as Ajax celebrated its return to Champions League football with an emphatic 3-0 victory over AEK Athens at the recently renamed Johan Cruyff Arena.
After dominating possession but failing to score in the first half, Argentina defender Tagliafico broke the deadlock just after the break and made it 3-0 in the 90th minute with an effort from an acute angle on the left that sailed over AEK goalkeeper Vassilis Barkas and into the goal.
In between, substitute Donny van de Beek doubled Ajax’s lead with a powerful close-range volley in the 77th.
It was four-time European champion Ajax’s first appearance in the Champions League in four years, while AEK was playing in Europe’s top club competition for the first time in more than a decade.
Ajax dominated possession but failed to create a meaningful chance in the first half.
That changed inside a minute after the break when a corner fell to David Neres, who scooped the ball into the penalty area where Tagliafico calmly slotted the ball under Barkas.
Van de Beek made it 2-0 by volleying past Barkas after a cross from the right by Dusan Tadic before Tagliafico completed the scoring with his spectacular effort from the left.
AEK defended in numbers and looked dangerous on the break in the first half against a makeshift Ajax defence that saw midfielder Frenkie de Jong replacing injured captain Matthijs de Ligt at centre back alongside Daley Blind. But the Greek champion was outplayed after the break and rarely threatened.
Champions League’s youngest coach starts with a drawKHARKIV, Ukraine — The youngest coach in Champions League history drew his debut game Wednesday as Hoffenheim’s game at Shakhtar Donetsk finished 2-2.
The 31-year-old Julian Nagelsmann had to wait just six minutes to see his team score a first Champions League goal as Florian Grillitsch put Hoffenheim 1-0 up.
However, Shakhtar responded with a solo effort from Ismaily in the 27th as the Brazilian charged down the left flank before leaving defender Havard Nordtveit sprawling as he cut inside and placed a shot inside the far post.
Nordtveit restored Hoffenheim’s lead with a header in the 38th after a corner and teammate Andrej Kramaric came close to scoring a third in the second half. However, Maycon’s long-range shot in the 81st minute for Shakhtar meant the teams shared the points in Group F after a frantic finish in which Hoffenheim held off a Shakhtar onslaught.
Nagelsmann, who turned 31 in July, took over at Hoffenheim in February 2016 at the age of 28 and qualified the team for the Champions League last season for the first time in its history by finishing third in the Bundesliga.
He’s a month younger than Belarusian Viktor Goncharenko was when he coached BATE Borisov against Real Madrid in the Champions League in 2008.
While Hoffenheim traces its history back to 1899, it’s a young club at the elite level. The team languished in the German amateur leagues before software billionaire Dietmar Hopp began to put large sums into the club starting from 2000, taking it to the Bundesliga in just eight years.
In Group F’s other game, Lyon upset Manchester City 2-1.
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