PARIS: Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice on his 400th Real Madrid appearance as the Champions League holders defeated Borussia Dortmund 3-1, while Harry Kane grabbed a hat trick in Tottenham Hotspur’s 3-0 win at APOEL Nicosia on Tuesday.
Gareth Bale struck an exquisite volley as the record 12-time European champions secured an 18th-minute lead at Signal Iduna Park, with the Welshman supplying Ronaldo for Real’s second just after halftime.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang poked in Gonzalo Castro’s cross to give Dortmund hope, but Ronaldo rifled past Roman Burki to cement a second straight win for Real in Group H and leave the Germans still without a point.
It was the first time Dortmund have lost at home to Real in seven European games while holders Madrid have now scored in 38 successive Champions League games.
Ronaldo, without a goal in his last two outings following his return from a five-match domestic ban, took his Real haul to 411 on what was also his 150th career appearance in Europe.
“I’m delighted for Ronaldo and Bale,” said Real coach Zinedine Zidane.
“It is difficult to play in this stadium, we have never won here, so this victory was important to us, and the whole game was good for us from start to finish.”
England striker Kane notched his sixth hat-trick of the year — and made it 11 goals for club and country in September — as Spurs backed up their opening victory over Dortmund with a comfortable win in Cyprus.
Mauricio Pochettino’s side survived an early scare when Igor De Camargo rattled the crossbar, but Kane’s clinical finish six minutes before the interval settled the visitors down.
Kane converted his second on 62 minutes and sealed his treble with a terrific header five minutes later to leave Spurs level on six points alongside Real ahead of their doubleheader with Zidane’s team.
“There were some good performances from players who are not regulars and a hat trick for Harry Kane, it was a fantastic performance,” said Pochettino.
Kevin De Bruyne curled in a sublime 25-yard strike as Manchester City overcame spirited resistance from Shakhtar Donestk, with Raheem Sterling completing a 2-0 victory at Eastlands.
Pep Guardiola’s men top Group F after back-to-back wins to start the campaign, and the Premier League leaders could even afford a missed penalty from Sergio Aguero whose effort was turned away by Andriy Pyatov.
Lorenzo Insigne, Dries Mertens and Jose Callejon hit the target as Napoli registered their first win by beating a hapless Feyenoord 3-1 in Italy.
Napoli goalkeeper Pepe Reina kept out Jens Toornstra’s second-half penalty, as Sofyan Amrabat’s stoppage-time goal was scant consolation for the Dutch champions who remain pointless.
Liverpool were held to a 1-1 draw away to Spartak Moscow despite a sparkling strike from Philippe Coutinho.
Coutinho linked up superbly with Sadio Mane to cancel out Fernando’s free-kick in the 31st minute, but Liverpool were unable to claim a winner as they recorded a second straight draw in Group E.
“In the Champions League group stage, the only target is to go through to the next round. That’s now possible for us. There were a lot of good things tonight,” said a positive-thinking Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp.
Wissam Ben Yedder fueled Sevilla to a 3-0 victory over Maribor of Slovenia.
Joaquin Correa’s dazzling run left the French striker with a simple tap-in for the opening goal after 27 minutes in Spain.
Ben Yedder then tucked away a second before the break and rounded out his hat-trick from the penalty spot late on as Sevilla moved top of the section on four points.
Porto stunned French champions Monaco with a 3-0 win in the principality in a repeat outcome of the 2004 final.
Vincent Aboubakar marked his return from suspension with goals in either half before Miguel Layun pounced on some slapstick defending in the closing moments as Porto bounced back from a home loss to Besiktas.
The Turkish champions top Group G with maximum points following a 2-0 success at home to newcomers RB Leipzig despite an 11-minute stoppage for floodlight failure in Istanbul.
Ryan Babel slotted home after fine work from Cenk Tosun and Talisca headed in a sublime cross from Ricardo Quaresma as Besiktas picked up their first win at home in the competition since November 2007.
Ronaldo sets milestone, Kane dazzles for Spurs
Ronaldo sets milestone, Kane dazzles for Spurs
Aston Martin says its car risks giving drivers ‘nerve damage’ and can’t finish F1 season-opener
- Aston Martin has predicted it is unlikely to finish Formula 1’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix without its drivers risking suffering permanent nerve damage
MELBOURNE: Aston Martin has predicted it is unlikely to finish Formula 1’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix on Sunday without its drivers risking suffering permanent nerve damage.
Adrian Newey, the F1 car design great who’s heading into his first race as Aston Martin’s team principal, said Thursday the team’s Honda power unit causes vibrations which could damage the hands of drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll. Neither will likely be able to tolerate even half of the 58-lap race distance, Newey added.
Aston Martin had a poor preseason, often slower even than new team Cadillac and it logged the fewest laps of all 11 teams.
“That vibration (transmitted from Honda’s power unit) into the chassis is causing a few reliability problems,” said Newey.
“Mirrors falling off the air, tail lights falling off, that sort of thing, which we are having to address. But, the much more significant problem with that is that that vibration is transmitted ultimately into the driver’s fingers.
“So Fernando is of the feeling that he can’t do more than 25 laps consecutively before he will risk permanent nerve damage into his hands. Lance is of the opinion that he can’t do more than 15 laps before that threshold.
“We are going to have to be very heavily restricted on how many laps we do in the race until we get on top of the source of the vibration — and to improve the vibration at source.”
Despite the long list of issues, Newey says the AMR26 car has tremendous potential as F1 starts a new era of regulations.
He argued the chassis is F1’s fifth-best behind the expected top-teams Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull and that, following an aggressive development program, has the potential to run at the front at some point in 2026.
Alonso, though, is keeping the faith until Friday practice in Melbourne, where he believes fixes on the car might provide a sunnier outlook.
“For us, it’s just vibrating everything,” the two-time F1 champion said.
“But it’s not only for us. The car is struggling a little bit, so that’s why we have some issues, some reliability problems that made our days slightly short.
“Since (pre-season testing in) Bahrain, there were a couple of tests done and some of the solutions are implemented on the car now, so (I’m) curious to see what (happens) tomorrow (and) if we can improve.”
Its disappointing performance has been variously attributed to a compressed design time due to late arrival; Honda’s need to rebuild its research and development capabilities after leaving Red Bull, the challenge of producing a new in-house gearbox, and the team running a so-far unproven fuels partner in Aramco.
But it’s the side effects that will likely sideline its cars early in Sunday’s race at Albert Park.
