Manchester United shrug off early jolt

Manchester United overcame the shock of conceding an early goal to overwhelm Champions League debutants Maccabi Haifa 5-2 on Wednesday at Ol...

Manchester United overcame the shock of conceding an early goal to overwhelm Champions League debutants Maccabi Haifa 5-2 on Wednesday at Old Trafford where they hope they will lift the European Cup in eight months time.

The biggest winners of the night were Olympiakos Piraeus who thrashed last season’s beaten finalists Bayer Leverkusen 6-2. Germany’s gloom was completed when Bayern Munich crashed to a 3-2 home defeat to Deportivo Coruna, while Barcelona made it four wins out of four for Spanish clubs over the two nights of opening matches with a 3-2 win against Club Bruges.

Dismal day for German clubs

Bayern Munich slumped to a shock 3-2 home defeat by Deportivo Coruna as German clubs made a poor start in the opening round of Champions League matches.
Bayern paid the prie for a sluggish first half as they slid to their first home game in the competition for five years on Wednesday.
Bayer Leverkusen, beaten by Real Madrid in last season’s finalists, fared even worse as they were thrashed 6-2 by Olympiakos Piraeus in Athens.
German champions Borussia Dortmund were also disappointing as they surrendered lamely to Arsenal, going down 2-0 at Highbury 24 hours earlier.
Bayern, the 2001 Champions League winners, were eager to make an early impact after ending last season without any silverware for the first time since 1995.
Bayern kicked off the season in style, winning four of their first five league games to go top in the Bundesliga. (Reuters)

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There was a shock start at Old Trafford where Haifa, the first Israeli club to play in the Champions League, stole an eighth minute lead through Yaniv Katan in their Group F match, but United equalised two minutes later with a Ryan Giggs header and romped to victory with further strikes from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (35), Juan Sebastian Veron (46), Ruud Van Nistelrooy (54) and Uruguayan striker Diego Forlan whose 89th minute penalty was his first goal for United in his 27th match.

Rafi Cohen had scored a second for the visitors four minutes before the penalty which was awarded when David Beckham was upended in the box. Bayer Leverkusen, who knocked United out in the semi-finals last season before losing the final to Real Madrid, began this year’s campaign badly losing 6-2 at Olympiakos Pireaus in the same group after taking the lead.

An own goal from Dimitris Eleftheropoulous after 22 minutes gave Bayer a bright start, but a hat-trick from Predrag Djordjevic spearheaded Olympiakos’s impressive victory.

It was a terrible night for the Germans with Bayern Munich fighting back from 2-0 down to pull level at 2-2, only to lose 3-2 at home to Deportivo Coruna with Dutchman Roy Makaay scoring a hat-trick for the visitors. (Reuters)

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