Ibrahimovic hits 4, Ronaldo soars amid goal glut
Print Edition
Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Cristiano Ronaldo come face-to-face next month when Sweden meets Portugal in a World Cup playoff and they sharpened their claws with six goals between them on a thrilling night of Champions League action on Wednesday.
Ibrahimovic joined the select band of players to score four Champions League goals in one match as Paris Saint-Germain won 5-0 at Anderlecht to consolidate its place atop Group C with a third straight win.
Benfica and Olympiakos ended 1-1 in the only draw of the night. The result left them both on four points, five behind Group C leader PSG.
Ronaldo struck both goals for Real Madrid, one from the penalty spot, as it posted a 2-1 win over Juventus to also move to nine points in Group B.
Swede Ibrahimovic, who scored all four for Sweden nearly a year ago in a 4-2 friendly win over England, wrapped up a 19-minute hat-trick with a stunning right-foot 25-meter thunderbolt before adding a fourth goal after the break.
That took his tally to 10 goals in five games for club and country and also put him 10th place on the all-time Champions League scoring list. Edinson Cavani scored PSG’s other goal.
“I feel good,” Ibrahimovic said later. “This year we are stronger. We have stronger players and we could win this competition, but remember the further you go the harder it gets.”
Ronaldo took his tally to seven goals in three Champions League matches this season and is now third on the list of all-time scorers with 57 goals from 95 matches in the competition proper behind Raul (71) and Lionel Messi (63).
Juventus finished with 10 men after Giorgio Chiellini was sent off early in the second half.
Gareth Bale was again a substitute, replacing Karim Benzema with just over 20 minutes left.
Ibrahimovic and Ronaldo were not the only top forwards amongst the goals on a night when 27 hit the net in the eight matches. Franck Ribery scored twice for European champion Bayern Munich in a 5-0 win against Czech champion Viktoria Plzen to continue its 100 percent start to Group D.
Bayern, whose last encounter with Plzen was back in 1971 and ended in a 7-1 aggregate win, added goals from David Alaba, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Mario Goetze.
There was also a big win for Bayern’s Bundesliga rival Bayer Leverkusen which thumped Shakhtar Donetsk 4-0 with Stefan Kiessling scoring twice.
Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero was another to get two as his side rallied in Group D to win 2-1 at CSKA Moscow. Galatasaray beat FC Copenhagen 3-1 to climb off the bottom of Group B with Didier Drogba on target.
The lowest scoring win was at Old Trafford where Manchester United beat Real Sociedad 1-0 after Real defender Inigo Martinez scored an own goal in the second minute which was enough to lift United to top spot in Group A.
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