Wins for Barca and Juventus, but Atletico are held

BARCELONA 3 OLYMPIACOS 1

Lionel Messi scored his 100th European goal as Barcelona maintained their winning run in Champions League Group D with a 3-1 home victory over Olympiacos.

A Dimitris Nikolaou own goal set the five-time European champions on their way but Gerard Pique’s red card just before half-time gave the visitors a glimmer of hope.

Not for long, though, as Messi made it to his milestone with a lovely free-kick before setting up Lucas Digne as Barcelona made light of having just 10 men with quick-fire goals in the second half.

JUVENTUS 2 SPORTING 1

Mario Mandzukic’s 84th-minute header earned Juventus a much-needed home victory over Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League.

With both sides having already beaten Olympiacos and lost to Barcelona, this was a crucial game in what appears a race for second spot in Group D.

Sporting went ahead in the 12th minute through an Alex Sandro own goal but Miralem Pjanic equalised in the first half and, just when it looked like Juventus would have to settle for a draw, Mandzukic secured a 2-1 victory.

QARABAG 0 ATLETICO MADRID 0

In Group C, goalkeeper Ibrahim Sehic was 10-man Qarabag’s hero as they collected a first ever Champions League group stage point by holding last season’s semi-finalists Atletico Madrid in Baku.

The Azerbaijanis, who were trounced 6-0 by Chelsea in the first round of fixtures, battled their way to a 0-0 stalemate despite the second-half dismissal of striker Dino Ndlovu to leave the Spanish aristocrats with just a single point from their first three games.

Atletico enjoyed the better of the first half, but were unable to make the pressure tell with Yannick Carrasco, Saul and Antoine Griezmann all forcing saves from Sehic and Jose Gimenez stabbing a shot just wide five minutes before the break.

As they continued to frustrate the visitors, the Azerbaijanis grew in confidence and Atletico keeper Jan Oblak had to field Richard Almeida’s curling 63rd-minute effort from distance before Pedro Henrique screwed a close-range effort wide seconds later.

Ndlovu was booked for the second time for diving with 15 minutes remaining and although Griezmann blasted wide deep into stoppage time, Qarabag held out.