Messi’s first PSG goal helps beat City

BERLIN (AP):

Lionel Messi scored his first Paris Saint-German (PSG) goal and Luxembourg midfielder Sébastien Thill struck late for newcomers Sheriff to stun 13-time champions Real Madrid in the Champions League yesterday.

Messi’s brilliant strike capped a 2-0 win for PSG over fellow big spenders Manchester City in what was a repeat of last season’s semi-final.

But the surprise of the second round was Moldovan club Sheriff’s coup in Madrid, where the home team was repeatedly thwarted by Greek goalkeeper Giorgos Athanasiadis and missed a host of chances before Thill’s last-minute goal secured a 2-1 win for the visitors.

MESSI OFF THE MARK

With all the attention on PSG’s star attacking trio of Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappé, it was unheralded midfielder Idrissa Gueye who opened the scoring in Paris with a hard strike inside the top right corner in the eighth minute.

Messi settled the issue in the 74th after playing a one-two with Neymar, who returned the ball with his heel, and then dinking it over Ederson inside the far corner.

It was the Argentine star’s first goal since his summer switch from Barcelona.

City had been unbeaten in their previous 18 Champions League group stage matches.

In the other Group A game, Club Brugge won 2-1 at Leipzig.

SHERIFF STUN MADRID

Real Madrid were happy to be back playing in the Santiago Bernabéu stadium, but the visitors appeared to feel right at home there, too.

Uzbek forward Jasurbek Yakhshiboev stunned the home fans by scoring with a header to Brazilian defender Cristiano’s cross in the 25th minute.

Madrid pushed and pushed for an equaliser before Karim Benzema finally scored with an expertly taken penalty in the 64th. But Thill’s powerful late winner gave Sheriff an unexpected second win from two games to top Group D with six points.

WINS FOR ATLÉTICO, LIVERPOOL

Spanish champions Atlético were second best for long periods at Group B rivals Milan. Rafael Leão scored for Milan in the 20th after some fine work from Brahim Díaz to set him up, but the home team was dealt a severe blow nine minutes later when Franck Kessié was shown a second yellow card for catching Marcos Llorente.

Still, the visitors had to wait until the 84th for Antoine Griezmann to equalise with his first goal for Atlético since he returned from Barcelona. Luis Suárez, another former Barça forward, got the winner from the spot after a handball in the area.

Nothing worked for Porto at home, either, as the Portuguese club lost 5-1 to Liverpool.

Mohamed Salah capitalised on a fortunate deflection from a Porto defender to open the scoring for Liverpool in the 18th and Sadio Mané had a tap-in after some lax defending before the break.

Porto’s experienced defender Pepe was injured in the warm-up and Otávio went off early, too.

Salah grabbed his second on the hour-mark. Mehdi Taremi pulled one back, but Roberto Firmino scored two to pad the scoreline.

HALLER STRIKES AGAIN

With Erling Haaland still out for Dortmund, it was up to Sébastien Haller to grab the headlines in Group C. The Ivory Coast forward’s 43rd-minute goal gave Ajax a 2-0 win over Beşiktaş and took his tally to five goals in two Champions League games since his off-season switch from West Ham.

Dortmund failed to impress in Haaland’s continued absence with a muscle injury. The German team eked out a 1-0 win at home over Sporting Lisbon thanks to new signing Donyell Malen’s first goal for the club.