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MADRID: Juventus’ Arturo Vidal (left) and Atletico’s Diego Godin go for a header during the Group A Champions League soccer match. — AP Atletico campaign back on track

MADRID: Atletico Madrid got their Champions 30 million euro summer signing Antoine rewarded with Atletico’s best spell of the match. under new boss Massimiliano Allegri. over the Spanish champions with a draw at the League campaign back on track as Arda Turan’s Griezmann was a hint of the cagey encounter to The home fans cries for penalty were turned Meanwhile, Juventus captain Gianluigi Buffon Vicente Calderon. goal 15 minutes form time was enough for a 1-0 come as chances were few and far between. away by German referee Felix Brych just before believes his side have to target at least the “How you analyse a result also depends on win over Juventus yesterday. Indeed the most noteworthy moment of the the hour mark despite the ball clearly striking the Champions League quarter-finals after the disap- how the game develops. “If we are brave and play Chances had been hard to come by in a physi- opening half was Atletico striker Mario arm of Martin Caceres from Raul Garcia’s cross pointment of crashing out at the group stages well and at the end there is no score, then a 0-0 cal contest between the Spanish and Italian Mandzukic tearing off the mask he had been before Buffon scrambled it clear. last season. away to Atletico Madrid is not a bad result.” champions, but Turan’s cool finish to end wearing to protect a broken nose after receiving Juventus had seemed to have weathered that The Italian champions opened their Group A Atletico boss Diego Simeone is well known to Juventus’ run of over 500 minutes without con- an elbow in the face form Leonardo Bonucci, for spell as the game became disjointed with both campaign with a comfortable 2-0 win over the visitors as he played for eight years in Italy ceding this season sealed a vital three points for which the Italian defender was booked. sides giving away possession far too cheaply. Malmo. “We want to get back to the stage where with Pisa, Inter Milan and Lazio and Juventus boss Diego Simeone’s men. Mandzukic also had the only effort on target However, with 15 minutes remaining Turan this club belongs,” Buffon said. Massimiliano Allegri believes his intensity as a Malmo’s 2-0 victory over Olympiakos means of the first period as his low effort was comfort- sneaked in ahead of Stephan Lichsteiner at the “At the very least we want to get back to the player is reflected in how his side play. all four sides in Group A are tied on three points ably beaten to safety by Gianluigi Buffon. back post to turn home Juanfran’s cross. level we reached a couple of years ago when we “Atletico show a lot of similar characteristics to with four matches to play. Last season’s beaten Juventus were enjoying over 60 percent of The goal forced the visitors onto the front foot lost to Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals. That is Simeone as a player. “They put in a lot of effort on finalists Atletico came into the game desperate possession, but the closest they came to breaking and they very nearly got an equaliser via an the minimum objective.” the pitch, they don’t give you space and try to be for the points having been surprisingly beaten the deadlock before the break came from a Paul unlikely source as Atletico captain Raul Garcia Atletico were surprisingly beaten in their first on top of the opponent all the time. “That is to away to Olympiakos on matchday one. Pogba shot from outside the box that curled just was grateful to see his attempted clearance form European outing of the season 3-2 by the credit of their coach. They have won the However, Simeone’s decision to opt for the past the post. Simeone introduced Griezmann for Lichsteiner’s cross fly just past his own goal. But Olympiakos and Buffon hinted that Juventus Spanish league and were 90 seconds away from more defensively minded Saul Niguez ahead of Saul eight minutes into the second-half and was Atletico held on to inflict Juventus’ first defeat would be happy to retain their three point gap winning the Champions League.” — AFP Liverpool falls Ronaldo leads victim to Basel Real comeback SOFIA: Cristiano Ronaldo helped Champions League holders Real Madrid sur- BASEL: Liverpool became the latest English Moreno and Adam Lallana. vive an early scare in Bulgaria and come away with all three points from a 2-1 club to fall victim to FC Basel as the Swiss The Reds, through the pace of Raheem win over Ludogorets Razgrad in Sofia yesterday. Ludogorets, a modest provin- side triumphed 1-0 in their Champions Sterling and Lazar Markovic in particular, cial club who have only been in existence for 13 years, stunned the 10-time League Group B clash at the St Jakob-Park set themselves up to try and hit their hosts European champions with a sixth-minute strike and threatened throughout yestrday. on the counter-attack, and Sterling had an despite Ronaldo taking a hand. In the last three years, Basel have beaten effort disallowed for offside in the third The Portuguese star missed one penalty and had a goal disallowed before Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur minute. scoring from a second spot-kick to spare Real’s blushes-all in the first 25 min- in European competition and won home However, a lively Basel had taken only utes. and away against Chelsea, and on this occa- 21 seconds to force the game’s first corner French striker Karim Benzema made sure Real’s reputation remained intact sion a solitary, scrappy goal in the 52nd and were not unsettled by the loss of their with the winning goal 13 minutes from time. minute from captain Marco Streller inflicted Swedish left-back Behrang Safari to injury The home crowd went wild in the sixth minute when the normally-com- a damaging defeat on Brendan Rodgers’s with only nine minutes on the clock, even if posed Sergio Ramos made a mess of Fabio Espinho’s corner and Marcelinho side. their coach Paulo Sousa responded by nipped in to head in from two yeards out. A tenacious Basel team were worthy switching to a three-man defence as he SWITZERLAND: Liverpool’s Mario Balotelli (foreground) fights for the ball against Four minutes later, Luka Modric slid a ball in behind the Bulgarian defence winners, even if they were left hanging on sent on the Paraguayan winger Derlis Basel’s Geoffroy Serey Die and Basel’s Fabian Schaer (background centre) during the and Yordan Minev mistimed his tackle to concede the penalty, only for at times as they tired in the closing stages, Gonzalez. Champions League Group B soccer match. —AP Ronaldo’s effort to be saved by goalkeeper Vladislav Stoyanov. On 14 minutes, and the Swiss champions indicated that Streller had a shot deflected wide for his players at the interval but they did react to the loose ball, scrambling it over Ronaldo fired home into the bottom corner, but he was flagged for offside. they must still be taken seriously in the before Mohamed Elneny forced a save out not have the desired effect. Instead, the line. But he finally made amends 10 minutes later after he was brought down group as they bounced back from a 5-1 of Simon Mignolet with a curling strike Liverpool were fortunate not to concede a It was no less than Sousa’s men by Alexander Alexandrov and stepped up to knock the penalty home. thumping at the hands of Real Madrid two from the edge of the area. penalty when Sterling appeared to haul deserved for their efforts, although they Ronaldo could have added a second on 35 minutes but just failed to get a weeks ago. Mignolet was also called into action to down Gonzalez in the box and then were almost pegged back within five min- head to Javier Hernandez’s cross and had and had another gilt-edged chance But Liverpool, having already struggled deny Geoffroy Serey Die after the Ivorian required Mignolet to come to their rescue utes, Fabian Schaer making a vital block to early in the second half. to beat Bulgarian rookies Ludogorets had cut inside both Jose Enrique and Dejan again with a save from Ahmed Hamoudi deny Markovic in the box. In between Ludogorets fans were sure their side had taken the lead when Razgrad 2-1 at Anfield, must now be dread- Lovren inside the box, before the visitors after Elneny’s pass had cut open the Balotelli then finally showed a glimpse Roman Bezjakl rounded off a crisp move with a clinical strike only for the off- ing a double-header with the defending finally livened up in the final 10 minutes of defence. of his quality from a viciously struck 35-yard side flag to be raised again. The wild scenes in the stadium meant Bezjak cele- European champions in which they will put the half. But Basel opened the scoring from the free-kick that was boxed away by Vaclik brated for almost half-a-minute before realising his strike had ruled out. their prospects of reaching the last 16 on Nevertheless, with Mario Balotelli waste- corner that followed as Liverpool’s well doc- before Markovic’s follow-up was deflected In an end-to-end encounter, Real’s class finally told 13 minutes from the line. ful, they did not seriously test Tomas Vaclik umented defensive problems were laid behind. Sterling’s poor touch saw him time when substitute Karim Benzema killed the tie off to give the Spanish Rodgers had made two changes to the in the Basel goal, the Czech saving comfort- bare once again. squander another chance while Balotelli side six points from their two games. Marcelo’s pinpoint cross was met by team that drew 1-1 with Everton in the ably from a Sterling shot and a Lovren When Taulant Xhaka’s ball in from the had a goal ruled out for offside as Liverpool the Frenchman with a clinical volley to silence the Sofia crowd. Ludogorets Merseyside derby, with Jose Enrique and header. right was deflected goalward, Mignolet did limped to a worrying defeat and extended have to play their matches in the capital as their own stadium holds just Philippe Coutinho replacing Alberto Rodgers must have had strong words well to save, but Streller was quickest to their sluggish start to the season. — AFP 6,500. — AFP