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maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 17 SEPTEMBER 2014 20 Sport FOOTBALL Rampant Madrid ease Basel aside Real Madrid CF 5-1 FC Basel 1893 REAL Madrid CF got their UEFA Champions League defence off to an impressive start, a devastating first-half attacking display setting up victory against FC Basel 1893. The hosts dominated possession from the kick-off, efforts from Luka Modrić and Cristiano Ro- naldo f lying over the bar. Just as it looked as Basel had weathered the early storm, some sumptu- ous build-up play down the right gave James Rodríguez the chance to back-heel the ball into Nacho Fernández's path and the full- back 's cross was inadvertently def lected past his own goalkeeper by Marek Suchý. The visitors almost drew level immediately, Marco Streller send- ing Taulant Xhkha's cross into the side netting, yet it was the Meren- gues who did the majorit y of the pressing. Modrić and Pepe both drew fine saves from Vaclík but the goalkeeper was exposed again on the half-hour when Modrić's sumptuous pass over the top found the run of Gareth Bale. The Welshman coolly lifted the ball over the onrushing Vaclík before tapping into an empt y net. That sparked a f lurry of three goals in eight minutes, Modrić and Bale combining to set up last season's 17-goal top scorer Ro- naldo for his first of this year's competition before James tapped in after Karim Benzema's def lect- ed shot had been clawed away by Vaclík. Less than 60 seconds later Derlis González raced on to a Lu- ca Zuffi through ball to fire low across Iker Casillas and into the far corner, but that was to be as good as it got for Basel. After that frenetic first half it was perhaps little surprise that the second 45 minutes was a tighter affair. Ronaldo and Ser- gio Ramos did threaten from set pieces while Casillas produced a stunning reaction save to deny González after the goalscorer had collected a ball over the top of the home back line. The Madrid captain was beaten again as Basel centre-back Fabian Schär raced forward, but the long- range effort clipped the post and the last word would go to Madrid. Benzema exchanged passes with Ronaldo before thumping in his team's fifth goal of the evening, marking Madrid 's intent to mount a first successful defence of the UEFA Champions League. Galatasaray 1-1 RSC Anderlecht An added-time goal from Burak Yılmaz denied RSC Anderlecht their first UEFA Champions League away win since December 2005 as Galatasaray AŞ snatched a point from their Group D open- er. With the visitors pressing high up the field, the early tempo was high. Space opened up as a conse- quence, with Anderlecht enjoying the better of the initial exchanges, firing three long-range shots wide of Fernando Muslera's goal. Part encouraged by his side's start, part swayed by Bram Nuytinck 's second-minute book- ing, Anderlecht coach Besnik Hasi withdrew the centre-back in favour of forward Matías Suá- rez midway through the first half as the Purple and Whites boldly switched to two up front. Three chances in ten minutes followed, with Ibrahima Conté first shooting wide after being found by Aleksandar Mitrović, who was swiftly thwarted by Mu- slera. The Uruguay No1 came to the Istanbul team's aid again when he kept out Olivier Desh- acht's close-range attempt. A def lected Felipe Melo shot and Selçuk İnan's free-kick which went narrowly wide were the sum total of Cesare Prandelli 's charg- es' first-half efforts, and though they looked more sprightly after the restart, Galatasaray soon fell behind. Bringing down the ball outside the penalt y area, Dennis Praet dropped a shoulder, stepped inside two challenges and un- leashed a shot that went in via the base of Muslera's right-hand post. Mitrović then squandered a chance to double the lead, drag- ging an effort wide after a swift counterattack by the Belgian ti- tleholders. It was a costly miss. Goran Pandev did his best to punish Mitrović's prof ligacy with a shot that was saved at his near post by UEFA Champions League debutant Dav y Roef, who then dashed off his line to smartly block from substitute Bruma. However, with Galatasaray pressing hard in a bid to avoid a home defeat on matchday one for the second season running, Aurélien Chedjou charged to the byline and pulled the ball back into the path of Burak for a sim- ple finish. AS Monaco FC 1-0 Bayer 04 Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen were left counting the cost of their waste- fulness in front of goal as AS Mo- naco FC won the pair's Group C opener 1-0. Prolific before arriving at the Stade Louis II, the Bundesliga leaders were curiously prof ligate as they passed up a host of oppor- tunities. Instead, João Moutinho's 61st-minute strike leaves Monaco ideally positioned ahead of their matchday two trip to FC Zenit. With seven UEFA Champions League debutants in a youthful lineup, Monaco coach Leonardo Jardim might have hoped his team would draw inspiration from the members of the 2003/04 UEFA Champions League runners-up side invited to the principalit y to watch the game. However, de- spite the hosts' youthful vigour, the moments of inspiration came from the visitors. A blistering counterattack scat- tered the Ligue 1 team but when it came to applying the finish- ing touch, Gonzalo Castro drove wide. Hakan Çalhanoğlu then surged beyond the home back four yet could only find the side- netting before he produced a sub- lime through ball to enable Karim Bellarabi to break clear. With just Danijel Subašić to beat, he squared the ball for a team-mate who was not there. With Monaco increasingly on the back foot, Leverkusen swept forward in numbers, but quantit y remained no guarantee of qualit y in front of goal. Another promis- ing opening ended in a def lating outcome as Son Heung-Min shot wide when it appeared the South Korean would give Leverkusen a half-time lead; something Castro might have done had his vicious half-volley not f licked off Lay vin Kurzawa to zip over the bar. Monaco's abilit y to hit the target was also lacking – that was until Moutinho finally did provide the requisite accuracy. Burst- ing forward as Kurzawa crossed for Dimitar Berbatov, Moutinho continued his run to latch onto his team-mate's delightful knock- down. A def lection off the lung- ing Emir Spahić helped take the Portuguese international 's shot beyond Bernd Leno. Bolstered by their advantage, Monaco's confidence swelled as Leverkusen's dissipated. Only when Subašić comfortably parried a Çalhanoğlu drive from distance did home hopes look in jeopardy, and Yannick Ferreira-Carrasco even threatened to add a second as Monaco coasted to the final whistle. Olympiacos FC 3-2 Club Atlético de Madrid Olympiacos FC pulled off one of the shocks of matchday one with a 3-2 Group A victory over last sea- son's runners-up Club Atlético de Madrid in Piraeus. Arthur Masuaku gave the Greek title-holders a dream start after 13 minutes when he drilled in a low shot on his UEFA Champi- ons League bow and the visitors were stunned further when the hosts doubled their lead through Ibrahim Afellay just after the half-hour. Mario Mandžukić re- duced the deficit seven minutes before half-time, but the visitors were hit by Kostas Mitroglou's 73rd-minute sucker-punch – his first goal for ten months. Al- though Atlético substitute Anto- ine Griezmann set up a breathless finish with a late close-range ef- fort, Míchel 's men hung on for a remarkable win. Borussia Dortmund 2-0 Arsenal FC Goals either side of half-time from Ciro Immobile and Pierre- Emerick Aubameyang earned a highly impressive victory for Dortmund at home to Arsenal. Jürgen Klopp's side made their intentions clear from the off, winning possession soon after kick-off and rarely losing it as the chances began to f low. It took un- til the stroke of half-time for Im- mobile to break the deadlock but Aubameyang doubled the advan- tage soon after the interval in a performance which will imbue the 2013 finalists with confidence. Cristiano Ronaldo (R) of Real Madrid CF celebrates with Gareth Bale after scoring their third goal during their UEFA Champions League group stage match against FC Basel 1893 Tonight UEFA Champions League Group E 20:45 B. Munich - Manchester C. 20:45 Roma - CSKA Moscow Group F 20:45 Ajax - Paris Saint Germain 20:45 Barcelona - APOEL Nicosia Group G 20:45 Chelsea - Schalke 4 20:45 Maribor - Sporting CP Group H 20:45 Athletico B. - S. Donetsk 20:45 FC Porto - BATE Borisov