London, Oct 19 (IANS): Manchester United and Manchester City scored their first victories in the Champions League Tuesday.
After a draw with Napoli at home and defeat by Bayern Munich, it was a must-win game for Roberto Mancini's team against Spanish club Villareal, and they had to struggle to pull it off 2-1 at the Etihad Stadium.
City's winner came in the stoppage time through Sergio Aguero after a Carlos Marchena own-goal right on half time had cancelled out Cani's opener for Villareal.
City's game against Bayern saw Carlos Tevez allegedly refusing to go in a second-half substitute and was subsequently suspended pending an inquiry.
City stay a point behind second-placed Napoli, who drew 1-1 with Bayern Munich in Italy. Toni Kroos scored for the Germans but they too, like Villareal, lost the advantage by an own goal from Holger Badstuber in the first half. Bayern could still have won if only Mario Gomez had not muffed a second-half penalty.
Manchester United were less stressed despite drawing with Benfica and Swiss club Basel in a less formidable group, and won 2-0 against Romania's Otelul Galati.
Wayne Rooney was back in the starting line-up for the first time since he was sent off playing for England. There were eight other changes, too, in the line-up. And it was Rooney who struck first, forcing two penalties and converting both. He thus became the highest scoring Englishman in the Champions League history.
United moved to second position in Group C, two points behind Benfica, who beat Basel 2-0 in Switzerland, Bruno Cesar and Oscar Cardozo scoring the goals.
Real Madrid came up with another impressive performance and they look a good bet to win the tournament this year. Jose Mourinho's side defeated Lyon 4-0 at home. Karim Benzema was the first to score and then he set up Sami Khedira for the second. The third was an own goal from Hugo Lloris before Sergio Ramos rounded off the tally.
Madrid have a five-point lead over both Lyon and Ajax, who scored a 2-0 victory over Dinamo Zagreb. Miralem Sulejmani Christian Eriksen scored for the Dutch club.
In other matches of the day, Inter Milan are back on track after losing their first match against Trabzonspor with a 1-0 victory over Lille. Giampaolo Pazzini scored the winner.
CSKA Moscow won their first match in the group with a 3-0 triumph over Trabzonspor. Seydou Doumbia scored twice and in between his goals Aleksandrs Cauna struck.
Results:
Group A: Napoli (Italy) 1 Bayern Munich (Germany) 1 at Napoli; Manchester City (England) 2 Villarreal (Spain) 1 in Manchester
Group B: CSKA Moscow (Russia) 3 Trabzonspor (Turkey) 0 in Moscow; Lille (France) 0 Inter Milan (Italy) 1 at Lille.
Group C: FC Basel (Switzerland) 0 Benfica (Portugal) 2 at Basel; Otelul Galati (Romania) 0 Manchester United (England) 2 in Bucharest.
Group D: Real Madrid (Spain) 4 Lyon (France) 0 in Madrid; Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia) 0 Ajax (Netherlands) 2 at Zagreb.