Madrid beat Celtic 3-0 to start UCL title defence – Ghana Latest Football News, Live Scores, Results

Actual Madrid overcame a formidable Celtic efficiency to begin the defence of their Champions League crown with an ultimately snug 3-0 victory at Celtic Park, Glasgow, on Tuesday.

After Celtic endured a sequence of near-misses, Madrid made their hosts pay with targets from Vinicius Junior, Luka Modric and Eden Hazard within the second half of the Group F encounter.

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Madrid’s night time was tarnished, although, by an damage to key striker Karim Benzema that noticed the France worldwide pressured off the sector, seemingly pointing to his knee, after half-hour.

Benzema’s damage was not the one factor that troubled Madrid in an action-packed first 45 minutes in entrance of a raucous house crowd.

Celtic gave Madrid all they might deal with within the first half, with the guests struggling to familiarize yourself with the Scottish champions’ depth each with their urgent and the velocity of their counter-attacks.

The hosts might have been in entrance inside a minute however Liel Abada’s shot deflected behind off Eder Militao. One other probability for Abada, who this time shot tamely straight at Thibaut Courtois, quickly adopted earlier than Celtic captain Callum McGregor drilled a shot off the within of the publish from the sting of the world.

Madrid had alternatives, too, because the half wore on. Hazard, on instead of Benzema, ought to have performed higher when miscuing a shot broad of the goal earlier than establishing Vinicius for a shot that was nicely blocked by Joe Hart within the Celtic aim.

The clearest Celtic probability fell proper at the beginning of the second half however, simply moments after approaching at half-time, Daizen Maeda fluffed his strains in entrance of aim.

And Celtic had been quickly made to pay. With 56 minutes on the clock, Federico Valverde put in an inviting low cross from the fitting and Vinicius arrived on the again publish for a composed end.

4 minutes later the lead was doubled. Hazard confirmed glimpses of his greatest with a run by way of midfield earlier than discovering Modric, who stepped inside a defender and poked the ball previous Hart.

Hazard then obtained himself on the scoresheet with 13 minutes remaining as Celtic’s resistance light and the Belgian was given the straightforward job to faucet house from Dani Carvajal’s cut-back.

Supply: espn.co.uk