Cristiano Ronaldo delivered the knock-out blow for Real Madrid in Tuesday's aristocratic battle with AC Milan in the Champions League.
Cristiano Ronaldo delivered the knock-out blow for Real Madrid in Tuesday's aristocratic battle with AC Milan in the Champions League, while Arsenal, Chelsea and Bayern Munich continued to match their perfect start.
The world's most expensive player opened the scoring in the Group G match at the Bernabeu and set up the second less than a minute later as the nine-times champions beat seven-times winners Milan 2-0 with a devastating one-two combination.
Those two teams make the record of Bayern Munich, the four-times winners, look relatively modest and there was a lot less style about their 3-2 win over CFR Cluj, which saw them come from behind to take the lead with two own-goals before Mario Gomez gave them breathing space.
Arsenal, who beat Braga 6-0 in their opening fixture in Group H, rarely struggle for panache at their own stadium and they were altogether too much for Shakhtar Donetsk in London.
Alex Song, Samir Nasri, Cesc Fabregas, Jack Wilshere and Marouane Chamakh picked off the goals in a 5-1 win, with former Arsenal player Eduardo da Silva getting a late consolation for the visitors and a heartwarming ovation for himself.
There was another goalscoring return as Chelsea won 2-0 at Spartak Moscow in Group F.
Yuri Zhirkov, who spent five seasons with Spartak's bitter Moscow rivals CSKA, set Chelsea on their way with his first goal for the club before French striker Nicolas Anelka doubled the lead just before the break.
Those four teams are firmly on course for the knock-out stage with each of them boasting a maximum nine points from three matches.
Beneath them, Ajax Amsterdam maintained their hopes in Real Madrid's group by winning 2-1 at home to Auxerre, a result that took them level with Milan on four points.
Goals from Brazilian strikers Lima and Matheus gave Braga their first points with a 2-0 win over Partizan Belgrade that leaves the Serbs bottom of Group H.
Basel sprang a surprise in Group E by winning 3-1 away to Roma after two defeats, while Olympique Marseille kept their Group F hopes alive as they laboured to a 1-0 home win against Slovakians Zilina.
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