Real Madrid's big stars turned on the style to revive the Spanish giant's faltering Champions League title defense on Tuesday.
Galacticos Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Junior and Jude Bellingham all scored in a thrilling 3-2 win at Italian league leader Atalanta. But Madrid still had to ride its luck as Mateo Retegui fired over from in front of goal in stoppage time when handed a golden chance to level the game.
It was only Madrid's third win in the competition's revamped league phase and leaves the 15-time champion in the unseeded playoff positions in 18th place. Mbappe was substituted off before halftime with an apparent physical issue.
Six-time champion Liverpool leads the way after maintaining its perfect record in Europe this season with a 1-0 win against Girona.
Like Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain also picked up a much-needed win, beating Salzburg 3-0 to sit in the last playoff spot in 24th place.
Bayer Leverkusen is second after a 1-0 win over Inter Milan, while Aston Villa beat Leipzig 3-2 and is third.
Brest is one of this season's surprise packages on its Champions League debut and is fifth after beating PSV Eindhoven 1-0.
Mohamed Salah’s 50th Champions League goal maintained Liverpool’s perfect record in the competition this season.
The Egypt forward struck a 63rd minute penalty to seal the win in Spain that kept Liverpool atop the 36-team league.
But even after a sixth straight win for the Merseyside club, head coach Arne Slot was critical of his players in a game that saw goalkeeper Alisson pull off several saves to keep Girona out.
“If you ask me about all the six games, I’m really pleased with all the results, I am really pleased with the five (other) games with the way we played. I’m far from pleased about the performance tonight,” he said.
Salah’s goal was his 16th in 22 appearances overall this season.
Girona was 30th with just one win from six games.
“I almost feel sorry for them because they deserved so much more in this Champions League campaign than the three points they have until now. But we have an incredible goalkeeper,” Slot said.
Even after Slot’s criticism, Liverpool continued its outstanding start to the campaign, which also led it the top of the Premier League.
Former Manchester United midfielder Donny van de Beek handed Salah the chance to fire the visitors ahead with a clumsy tackle from behind on Luis Diaz in the box. Salah stepped up to convert the penalty and Girona goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga went the wrong way.
Liverpool’s two remaining games are against Lille at home and PSV Eindhoven away in January.
U.S. international Christian Pulisic is the only player to have scored against Liverpool in this season’s Champions League in a 3-1 loss for Milan in September.
Bayern Munich routed Shakhtar Donetsk 5-1 to move into the automatic qualifying positions for the round of 16.
Michael Olise scored twice as Bayern came back from going 1-0 down inside five minutes to a goal from Brazilian winger Kevin.
Sporting Lisbon couldn’t build on taking a third-minute lead at Club Brugge — losing 2-1 in Belgium.
Dinamo Zagreb drew 0-0 with Celtic and both teams remain in the playoff positions.
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James Robson is at https://twitter.com/jamesalanrobson
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
