Sunday, December 22, 2024

Ruben Amorim’s Sporting stun Manchester City and Liverpool run riot at Anfield

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Manchester United-bound Ruben Amorim inspired Sporting Lisbon to a 4-1 Champions League victory over Manchester City in his final home game in charge.

City went ahead courtesy of Phil Foden but Sporting hit back with Viktor Gyokeres’ hat-trick, including two penalties, and Maximiliano Araujo’s strike.

It was the first time City – for whom Erling Haaland missed a penalty – have lost three games in succession since 2018, excluding a later sequence in 2021 that included the Community Shield.

Manchester City were heavily defeated in Portugal (Zed Jameson/PA)

Luis Diaz scored Liverpool’s first Champions League hat-trick at Anfield in seven years as they extended their 100 per-cent record to four matches with a 4-0 victory over Bayer Leverkusen as former midfielder Xabi Alonso endured a miserable return.

Diaz’s chip was followed by Cody Gakpo’s fourth goal in a week as the hosts won the game within the space of three second-half minutes before Diaz added two more late on.

Nicolas Kuhn inspired Celtic’s stirring comeback against his former club RB Leipzig as Brendan Rodgers’ side recorded a third consecutive European home victory.

The German winger produced an outstanding display as his double late in the first half put Celtic in front after Christoph Baumgartner had headed the visitors in front.

Luis Diaz leaps in the air and fist pumps while celebrating a goal
Luis Diaz scored a hat-trick for Liverpool (Peter Byrne/PA)

Reo Hatate capitalised on a goalkeeping mistake to ensure a deserved 3-1 win which propelled Celtic well into the top half of the table.

Alvaro Morata came back to haunt his former club as AC Milan heaped more misery on Real Madrid with a 3-1 win at the Santiago Bernabeu.

Malick Thiaw opened the scoring for the visitors before Vinicius Junior levelled for Madrid, but Morata scored in the 39th minute before Tijjani Reijnders added a third in the second half.

Thilo Kehrer stabbed home from close range in the 86th minute to lift Monaco into third as they earned a 1-0 win over Bologna.

AC Milan celebrate a goal at the Bernabeu
Real Madrid suffered their second defeat in Europe this season (Manu Fernandez/AP)

Borussia Dortmund left it late to secure a 1-0 win over Sturm Graz courtesy of Donyell Malen’s strike four minutes from time.

Dusan Vlahovic’s second-half penalty cancelled out Jonathan David’s opener as Juventus drew 1-1 with Lille.

In the early games, Dinamo Zagreb earned a second consecutive victory in the competition with an emphatic 4-1 win over Slovan Bratislava while PSV picked up their first European win this season with a 4-0 thrashing of Girona.

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