Arsenal whip Sporting 5-1 as Man City blow 3-goal lead in UCL

Arsenal romped to a 5-1 victory away to Sporting in Lisbon while Manchester City’s struggles continued as Pep Guardiola’s side blew a three-goal lead to draw 3-3 with Feyenoord in the Champions League on Tuesday.

There were also big wins for Atletico Madrid, Atalanta, and Bayer Leverkusen, while Inter Milan went top of the standings after five games and Barcelona’s Robert Lewandowski reached a century of Champions League goals.

Bayern Munich also defeated Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) to leave the French club in danger of elimination.

Gabriel Martinelli, Kai Havertz, and Gabriel Magalhaes scored in the first half for Arsenal, before Goncalo Inacio pulled one back shortly after the restart.

Bukayo Saka converted a penalty in the 65th minute after Martin Odegaard had been brought down, and Leandro Trossard headed in to seal Arsenal’s win late on.

The victory lifted Arsenal into seventh place in the revamped Champions League as they chase a place in the last 16.

It was Arsenal’s biggest away win in the Champions League since Arsene Wenger’s men thrashed Inter Milan by the same scoreline in 2003.

Ending Sporting’s 18-game unbeaten start to the season in all competitions, just weeks after the Portuguese champions had crushed Manchester City 4-1 in Lisbon, served notice that Arsenal are back on track following a damaging slump.

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said: “I’m very happy. It’s a big result against a big opponent. We wanted to make that statement.

“I felt really good energy and belief before the match. The first half was exceptional, you have to put it into practice.

“We were really clever, really intelligent and really efficient.

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“After we conceded, we showed a lot of personality to bring the game back. Then we scored the fourth goal and that’s when the game changed again.”

The biggest drama came at the Etihad Stadium, where City were cruising early in the second half with a three-goal advantage as they sought to end a run of five successive defeats in all competitions.

Erling Haaland opened the scoring from a penalty just before half-time, and Ilkay Gundogan’s deflected shot made it 2-0 in the 50th minute.

Haaland struck again to make it 3-0, but Feyenoord’s comeback began on 75 minutes when Anis Hadj Moussa took advantage of hapless defending to round goalkeeper Ederson and pull one back.

Substitute Santiago Gimenez bundled in to make it 3-2 on 82 minutes and the equaliser arrived a minute from the end.

Ederson was again caught out with Igor Paixao going around the goalkeeper and crossing for Slovak international David Hancko to head in.

Guardiola said after the game: “We concede a lot of goals because we are not stable.

“We lost a lot of games lately. We are fragile and of course we need a victory.”

It is the first time that a team has gone into the last 20 minutes of a Champions League game trailing by three goals and still avoided defeat, as the point boosts the Dutch side’s hopes of progressing.

City are two points outside the top eight places which offer direct qualification for the last 16, while Bayern moved above them by beating PSG 1-0 in Munich.

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South Korean defender Kim Min-jae scored the only goal seven minutes before half-time, heading in after goalkeeper Matvei Safonov failed to clear a corner.

PSG had Ousmane Dembele sent off in the second half and the French champions have just four points, and three goals, from five games.

They are a lowly 26th in the 36-team league, a point adrift of the positions which offer a place in the play-off round in February.

Meanwhile, Lewandowski notched his 100th goal in the competition with an early penalty in Barcelona’s 3-0 home win over French side Brest.

Dani Olmo netted midway through the second half before Lewandowski sealed Barcelona’s win at the death, his 101st goal in the Champions League – only Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have scored more.

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Inter lead the standings with 13 points, a point ahead of Barcelona and Liverpool, after a 1-0 win at home to RB Leipzig which means they are also still yet to concede a goal.

Atalanta also romped to a 6-1 win over rock-bottom Young Boys in Switzerland, while Leverkusen crushed Red Bull Salzburg 5-0.

Atletico romped to a 6-0 win away to Sparta Prague, while AC Milan recorded a 3-2 win at Slovan Bratislava.

The Star