MANCHESTER, England (AP) – Manchester United staged a stunning comeback to recover from its worst start to a European home game by beating Roma 3-2 in the Champions League on Tuesday.
Paris Saint-Germain, meanwhile, set a record as the quickest team to score four goals in the history of the competition by powering into a 4-0 lead after 17 minutes against Villarreal on its way to a 6-0 win.
Elsewhere, Barcelona beat Aston Villa 3-0 and Bayern Munich won 2-0 at Atletico Madrid.
But the biggest drama of the night came at Old Trafford, where United’s troubled season looked set to plunge deeper into crisis after going 2-0 down after 17 minutes against Roma.
It was the quickest United had conceded twice in any European game at its iconic stadium. But a rousing second-half performance saw Bruno Fernandes convert a retaken penalty and Matheus Cunha score twice before being sent off to seal a much-needed win for under fire coach Michael Carrick.
“I’m not getting too carried away with things,” Carrick said. “I think it’s an important night. I think it’s important for some of the players to have the feeling that they maybe haven’t had here before.”
PROTESTS TURN INTO A PARTY FOR UNITED FANS
The joyous scenes at the end were in stark contrast to earlier, when furious United fans attempted to disrupt the match by hurling tennis balls on the field.
The pre-planned protest was the latest show of dissent from supporters who have long-called for the club’s American owners, the Glazer family, to sell their controlling stake.
A small number of balls were thrown in the 21st minute to mark 21 years since the Glazers staged a leveraged buyout of the storied club.
By then Roma had raced to a 2-0 lead through Matias Soule’s 11th-minute strike and Donyell Malen’s penalty.
It could have been worse by the break, with Roma having more chances to extend the lead. But the game was turned on its head after halftime, with Fernandes’ twice-taken penalty giving the home fans hope and then Cunha sealing the comeback with goals in the 83rd and 86th.
“We knew after halftime that we still had the fans with us and we felt that at any moment we could change that with a goal, with something. Fortunately for us, we did it today,” Fernandes told Amazon Prime. “Hopefully this win today gives the start of something good for us.”
It was a case of history repeating for Roma, which conceded three goals in the last 10 minutes in a 4-3 loss to Real Madrid last month.
RAMPANT PSG SETS RECORD
PSG looks like the team to beat again as it chases down a hat trick of Champions League titles, which would see Luis Enrique’s team match the feat of Real Madrid from 2016-18.
Even without the injured Ousmane Dembélé and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, the French giant had too much firepower for Villarreal, with an early goal blitz effectively putting the game to bed long before halftime at El Madrigal.
Joao Neves, Desire Doue, Senny Mayulu and Fabian Ruiz scored inside the first 17 minutes. UEFA said it was the fastest any team had netted four goals in a Champions League game.
Ruiz and 17-year-old David Boly, four minutes after coming on as a substitute for his competition debut, added goals in the second half for PSG, which is the only team on 12 points.
“Conceding four goals so quickly is difficult for any team,” Ruiz said. “You prepare for a match, and then to have four goals scored against you, it’s a real blow. We don’t look at the scoreboard, we always try to stick to our own style of play and our own rhythm.”
BAYERN BEATS ATLETICO
There was no goal for newly-crowned Ballon d’Or winner Harry Kane, but Bayern still prevailed at Atletico.
Lennart Karl and Konrad Laimer scored second-half goals for Bayern, which has eight points from four games in the league phase.
Karl capitalized on a defensive blunder to break the deadlock in the 54th and Laimer collected a precise cross from Kane to fire into the roof of the net 20 minutes later.
BARCELONA BLOWS VILLA AWAY
Raphinha scored twice for Barcelona to end Villa’s perfect start to the Champions League.
Lamine Yamal fired the opening goal at Camp Nou in the seventh and Raphinha put the game beyond doubt with a double after the break.
Barcelona moved up to second in the standings, ahead of third-placed Villa on goal difference. The Spanish giant’s only loss in the competition came against PSG.
WINS FOR SPORTING AND GALATASARAY
Sporting Lisbon beat Shakhtar Donetsk 1-0, a day after announcing it was parting ways with coach Rui Borges.
Under reserve coach Tiago Fernandes, the Portuguese giant picked up its third win in the Champions League this season, with Issa Doumbia scoring the decisive goal in the game at Stamford Bridge.
Aleksey Batrakov scored two goals in quick succession to seal a 2-0 win for Galatasaray against Stuttgart.
Batrakov opened the scoring in the 12th minute at RAMS Park and struck again three minutes later.
Inter Milan beat Feyenoord 3-0, LASK won 4-0 against Slovan Bratislava and Bodø/Glimt drew 0-0 with Lille.
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