Cristiano Ronaldo struck his second successive hat-trick as Real Madrid cruised to a 4-1 win over Ajax, as Lukas Podolski scored the winner for Arsenal in a 3-1 victory over Olympiakos at the Emirates Stadium in the Champions League.
Manchester City flirted with disaster before a Mario Balotelli penalty saved their blushes against Borussia Dortmund, after Marco Reus had given the German champions a deserved lead. There were also wins for Malaga, Dynamo Kyiv, FC Porto and AC Milan, as Montpellier snatched a late equalizer at Schalke.
At The Emirates, it looked like it was going to be another one of those forgettable nights for the Gunners, after an abject first half performance. Arsenal were guilty of giving the ball away on several occasions, and were lucky not to have been punished by Olympiakos, with Machado, who had an excellent game for the Greek side, coming the closest.
Arsenal, however, went into the lead in the 42nd minute, even if they were far from their best. Santi Cazorla played to ball out to the left to Lukas Podolski, who in turn cut the ball back into the center, towards Mikel Arteta, who shook off an ankle injury to start the game. The ball rebounded off the Spaniard kindly to Gervinho, who provided an astute low finish into the bottom corner.
However, Arsenal seemed to go to sleep after scoring, allowing too much space for Leandro Greco down the left, who took his time before whipping in a wicked cross for Kostas Mitroglou to head into the bottom far corner on the stroke of half time.
Arsenal needed to come out with a better performance in the second half, and they did - showing much more purpose and desire to get a positive result. The Gunners went back into the lead, with Lukas Podolski taking the plaudits yet again. Gervinho's persistence paid off inside the box, with the Ivory Coast international cutting the ball back to Podolski, whose left-footed strike snuck in between goalkeeper Balazs Megyeri's legs.
The home team added the gloss in the final minutes, with substitute Aaron Ramsey brilliantly chipping the goalkeeper after being put through by another sub Olivier Giroud.
In the other game of Group B, 10-man Montpellier held Schalke to a 2-2 draw, meaning the Gunners are leading the table with six points from two games, while Schalke have four. Montpellier are third with one point, with Olympiakos yet to open their account.
At the Amsterdam Arena, it was all about the Portuguese superstar, with Ronaldo netting his second consecutive treble, after his La Liga exploits against Deportivo at the weekend. Ronaldo scored one in the first half, before getting his brace with an absolutely wonderful finish to make 3-1 to his side - that strike was sandwiched by an acrobatic overhead goal from Karim Benzema.
Ronaldo added Real's fourth with another great goal, as Real tightened their grip on Group D. City were extremely lucky to escape with a draw, after being under the pump for pretty much the entire game. Reus struck, what seemed like would be the winner, pouncing on a mistake from Jack Rodwell just past the hour mark.
Dortmund should have really been a couple of goals up, considering their dominance in the entire match at the Etihad, and were made to pay for their misses, when Balotelli converted a spot kick after the referee harshly awarded the home side a penalty for a handball by Neven Subotic, as the ball inadvertently struck the defender's hand from Sergio Aguero's shot.
Results: Group A: Dynamo Kyiv 2-0 Dinamo Zagreb; Porto 1-0 PSG. Group B: Arsenal 3-1 Olympiakos; Schalke 2-2 Montpellier. Group C: Zenit St Petersburg 2-3 AC Milan; Anderlecht 0-3 Malaga. Group D: Ajax 1-4 Real Madrid; Manchester City 1-1 Borussia Dortmund.
