Home ›› 04 Nov 2021 ›› Sport
Cristiano Ronaldo scored another late goal to rescue Manchester United in the Champions League on Tuesday, as his former club Juventus and Bayern Munich both secured qualification for the last 16 with two group games to spare.
Ronaldo fired in from the edge of the box a minute into injury time to snatch United a 2-2 draw with Atalanta in Italy and keep them on course to qualify from Group F.
The competition's all-time top scorer had earlier cancelled out Josip Ilicic's opener to equalise at the end of a slick team move in first-half stoppage time.
However, having lost Raphael Varane to injury before that, United went behind again in the 56th minute when Duvan Zapata ran through, evading Harry Maguire before slotting in.
The goal was initially disallowed for offside before being given after a VAR review, but Ronaldo thwarted the hosts again with his ninth goal in 11 appearances since returning to Old Trafford and his record-extending 139th goal in the competition.
"We believed until the end. I helped my team get one point," said Ronaldo. "We never give up, it's a good result for us I think."
The 36-year-old also scored an injury-time winner when United came from behind to beat Villarreal 2-1 in September and headed in late on to complete a comeback from 2-0 down to defeat Atalanta 3-2 at home two weeks ago.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side are level on seven points atop the group with Villarreal, who beat Swiss champions Young Boys 2-0 in Spain with Etienne Capoue scoring a first-half opener and then setting up Arnaut Danjuma to clinch the win late on.
Fati dedicates goal to Aguero
Ansu Fati said his goal and Barcelona's victory were for the absent Sergio Aguero as Tuesday's 1-0 win at Dynamo Kiev sent the Catalans up to second in Group E of the Champions League.
Barca's maiden away success of the season in all competitions allowed them to move above Benfica, after their 5-2 loss at Bayern Munich, who qualified for the last 16.
"The goal is for Kun (Aguero). This victory is for him. Hence my dedication," Fati told Movistar.
"We are going to fight. We depend on ourselves and we are going to go with everything. We knew it was an important week," he added ahead of Saturday's La Liga trip to Celta Vigo.
The sides had scored just once between them in their opening three matches of this year's competition and the run continued during a slow first half. The best opportunity before the interval fell to Barca's Nico Gonzalez but his header was blocked two metres from the Dynamo line by team-mate Memphis Depay.
The breakthrough came with 20 minutes left as teenager Fati, wearing Lionel Messi's former No. 10 shirt, scored his third goal of the season.
Oscar Mingueza fired a low cross into the Ukrainan box and Fati half-volleyed the ball into the top corner after a deflection.
