Barcelona, Inter and upstart Brest win again in Champions League. Bizarre penalty dooms Aston Villa
Barcelona and Inter Milan won again in the Champions League on Wednesday though both former title holders are looking up in the standings toward upstart newcomer Brest.
Aston Villa started the week atop the 36-team table but its winning run ended after a bizarre penalty was awarded when defender Tyrone Mings picked up the ball in the area at Club Brugge, resulting in a 1-0 loss that sent the English club plummeting to eighth place.
Paris Saint-Germain, in its first season without Kylian Mbappe, trails far behind in 25th after Atletico Madrid scored in stoppage time to seal a 2-1 win for the Spanish team at Parc des Princes.
Barcelona’s blistering scoring form continued in a 5-2 win at Red Star Belgrade — a seventh straight win since the start of October at a rate of four goals per game. Robert Lewandowski scored twice and has 21 this season.
Inter Milan stifled Arsenal in a 1-0 win at San Siro sealed by Hakan Çalhanoğlu’s penalty in first-half stoppage time.
Inter is unbeaten on 10 points and in fifth place, one below Brest which won 2-1 at Sparta Prague. The French debutant looks sure to advance to the knockout phase starting in February.
Atalanta won 2-0 at Stuttgart to stay unbeaten on eight points and Salzburg got its first goals and points in a 3-1 win at Feyenoord.
Shakhtar Donetsk playmaker Heorhiy Sudakov had a fine assist and an even better goal in a 2-1 win for the Ukrainian champion against Young Boys. Shakhtar’s No. 10 showed why he is expected to be the club’s next big-money sale.
A kickoff delayed by 15 minutes at Bayern Munich because of crowd congestion meant a late finish in its game against Benfica.
Liverpool, which on Tuesday routed Bayer Leverkusen 4-0, leads the new single-standings format at the midway point of the eight-round program.
Liverpool is the only team with four straight wins, while five teams have four losses. They are Leipzig, Sturm Graz, Young Boys, Red Star Belgrade and Slovan Bratislava.
Two Italian teams – Inter Milan and Atalanta – have yet to concede a goal in four games. Another Italian side, Bologna, is the only team with no goals scored.
Villa had led the 36-team Champions League standings after three straight wins without conceding a goal — and it took a bizarre incident before goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez was eventually beaten.
Mings was punished for picking up the ball when Martínez seemed to restart play with a goal kick passed forward to his teammate. Mings walked a couple steps to gather the ball with his left hand and returned to place it in the six-yard box.
Brugge captain Hans Vanaken placed the 52nd-minute spot-kick to Martínez's left as the World Cup-winning Argentina goalkeeper dived to his right.
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