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Inter's Hakan Calhanoglu
Photo: MARCO BERTORELLO / AFP
After an easy 5-0 win over Viktoria Pilsen, FC Bayern Munich were able to relax and watch as FC Barcelona suffered a 1-0 defeat in Group C in Milan.
Bayer Leverkusen continued their negative trend in Porto.
Napoli inflicted a historic home defeat on Ajax Amsterdam.
Leverkusen's managing director Fernando Carro had found clear words in the past few days, which mainly affected coach Gerardo Seona: Success is needed, and "very, very short-term".
Bayer almost took the lead at very short notice, but referee Anthony Taylor denied a goal by Callum Hudson-Odoi (18th minute).
Robert Andrich committed a foul before scoring the goal.
Porto, in the back four with 39-year-old Pepe and ex-Leverkusen player Wendell, found it difficult to get back into the game after two group stage defeats.
Bayer, driven by the flashy Moussa Diaby, were the better team.
Things got strange just before half-time: Porto initially celebrated the supposed 1-0 lead, but when looking at the video images the referee team recognized a previous handball on the other side and gave Bayer a penalty.
However, Patrik Schick failed because of Diogo Costa (44th).
At the end of September, the Czech had not been able to beat the Portuguese national goalkeeper with a penalty in the Nations League.
After the break, Bayer became more and more passive and was punished for it.
Porto combined more than 60 meters forward and converted a cross from the right wing with a powerful headbutt.
Substitute Zaidu was the scorer (69').
Shortly before the end, Galeno made it 2-0 (87'), Leverkusen's Jeremie Frimpong picked up a second yellow card (88').
Group C is the one with the most dazzling names.
But because FC Bayern Munich is comfortably at the top of the table with three wins in three games, Inter and FC Barcelona have to make sure early in the season that they don't get into a difficult situation when fighting for progress.
The guests from Barcelona started offensively, but it was Milan who had the first chance of the game: Hakan Çalhanoğlu tested goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen with a long-range shot (7').
Inter stood low and waited for a counterattack, Barça found this approach extremely difficult and consequently fell behind: Çalhanoğlu put the ball wonderfully low next to the post from 25 meters (45+2).
The first significant chance for the guests came after more than 60 minutes.
Former Dortmund player Ousmane Dembélé hit the post from inside the left (61').
Shortly thereafter, the supposed equalizer was not valid due to a handball by Ansu Fati (67th).
With the national team, Liverpool right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold was only a spectator after poor performances.
His club coach Jürgen Klopp, on the other hand, protected the 23-year-old – and he returned the favor early in the game.
In the seventh minute, Alexander-Arnold curled a free-kick from the inside left into the left corner, 40-year-old Allan McGregor in the Scots goal was powerless.
As a result, the veteran developed into the best player among the guests.
He parried several times when Liverpool had good chances.
Darwin (34th, 41st and 43rd) and Luis Díaz (35th) failed because of the goalkeeper, who was Stefan Klos' substitute keeper at Rangers more than 20 years ago.
It then took a penalty to overtake McGregor.
Leon King had placed Díaz, Mohamed Salah converted safely (53rd).
With Liverpool FC, SSC Napoli and Ajax Amsterdam are also fighting in Group A for the round of 16.
The guests from Italy, who started this Champions League season with two wins, fell behind early on in a game that was hard-fought from the start.
Mohammed Kudus deflected a shot from Kenneth Taylor to make it 1-0 (9th).
SSC responded promptly: Giacomo Raspadori scored to equalize with a diving header (18').
Napoli underlined that the win against Liverpool FC was not a slip-up and continued to cause problems for the Ajax defence.
Giovanni di Lorenzo with a header (33') and Piotr Zielinski after a strong start (45') gave Napoli a 3-1 lead before the break.
Napoli played like a top team and got help from Ajax right after the restart: goalkeeper Remko Pasvaar fabricated a bad pass that landed on André Anguissa again at Raspadori, who shot dry (47th).
Ajax was now completely insecure and even conceded the 5-1 (63rd) and 6-1 (81st) through Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Giovanni Simeone.
Ajax captain Dušan Tadić was also sent a second yellow card (73').
It was the first time in Ajax's history that they had conceded five goals in a European home game.
The last defeat ever with a difference of five goals was in 1980/1981 in the European Cup - a 0:5 at FC Bayern.
Club Brugge have been the surprise team in Group B so far, leading the table by six points after back-to-back wins against Leverkusen and Porto.
The Belgians have strong backing in the box.
In a one-on-one against Atlético attacker Álvaro Morata, Simon Mignolet prevented the 0:1 (26th) and watched his team's second trump card from a distance, the powerful offensive: After a wonderful interaction with Feran Jutgla, Kamal Sowah pressed the ball from a short distance to make it 1-0 for Club Brugge over the line (36').
The guests from Madrid approached Mignolet's goal at the beginning of the second half, but conceded the 0:2 after just over an hour: Jutgla, who failed in the 47th minute due to the strong parry of Jan Oblak, scored from ten meters for the Club Brugge (62nd).
Antoine Griezmann missed a penalty kick on the other side (77th).
In Marseille the game was decided after a wild 30 minutes.
First, Francisco Trincão gave the guests from Lisbon the lead with a one-off (1st minute), but then Sporting derailed the game with three serious mistakes by goalkeeper Antonio Adán.
First, Olympique's Alexis Sánchez ran into the keeper and his attempt to clear it rebounded from Sánchez into the goal (13').
Just three minutes later, Adán struck a goal-kick straight to Matteo Guendouzi about 35 yards from his own goal.
Marseille's ball win culminated in a header from ex-Schalke player Amine Harit (16').
Adán's evening got even worse when he handballed the ball outside the penalty area and was sent off for it (23').
Shortly thereafter, Leonardo Balerdi headed the 3:1 (28th).
In the closing stages, Chancel Mbemba scored the hosts' fourth goal (84').
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