Manchester United and Manchester City began their Champions League campaigns with draws on Wednesday.
Manchester United, who went into the tournament as runner-up in the previous season after losing to Barcelona, were down 0-1 in the 24th minute against Benfica, before Ryan Giggs equalised for them in the 42nd minute to ensure that they came out of the game with a point. On the other hand, Manchester City also drew 1-1 against Napoli in what was the English side’s debut at the Champions League.
The Group C encounter between Manchester United and Benfica saw Oscar Cardozo take the lead for the home team before the amazing equaliser from Giggs. It was a hard, left-footer from Giggs that came from the edge of the penalty area and won the side a point.
On the other hand, Manchester City were saved the blushes by Aleksandar Kolarov’s 74th-minute free kick which allowed them to get the one point. Earlier, Edinson Cavani had put the visitors ahead in the 69th minute and the chances of an upset looked bright.
In some of the other games of the day, Bayern Munich began with a 2-0 victory over Villarreal in a Group A match, with Toni Kroos and substitute Rafinha being the goal-scorers. Even Real Madrid started off with a win, in a bid to win the tournament for a record 10th time, as they beat Dinamo Zagreb 1-0. Marcelo was red-carded in the 73rd minute after Angel Di Maria had scored in the 53rd.
Ajax and Lyon played out a 0-0 draw in a Group D match while CSKA Moscow came back from being 0-2 down to hold the French champion Lille to a draw. There was win for Basel as they beat Romania’s Otelul Galati 2-1 in Group C.
Inter Milan, who had gone down to Palermo in the Italian Serie A match earlier last weekend were the upset result of the night. They went down to first-timers Trabzonspor, who were making their debut by a fortunate piece of circumstances when they replaced Turkish rival Fenerbahce on account of their match-fixing allegations. It was Czech defender Ondrej Celustka who scored the goal in the 76th-minute goal for Trabzonspor, to give them a stunning victory.
Earlier on Tuesday, Chelsea had beaten Bayer Leverkusen 2-0 at home, while Valencia were held to a 0-0 draw by Genk in their group. Borussia Dortmund drew with Arsenal 1-1 to ensure that they both got a point while Barcelona were held to a 2-2 draw by Inter Milan.