Champions League: Real Madrid, led by Mbappe, crushes Marseille, and Juventus draws with Dortmund.
Arabian Sea Newspaper - Special
**Arab Gulf - Reports:** **Real Madrid of Spain, led by its French striker Kylian Mbappé, managed to achieve a difficult 2-1 victory over Marseille of France on Tuesday in the first round of the unified group stage of the Champions League. This victory came despite the Royal Club completing the match with ten players after the expulsion of captain Dani Carvajal in the 72nd minute.** **The French team was the first to score through Timothy Weah in the 22nd minute, but Mbappé quickly equalized from a penalty kick in the 29th minute, before adding the second and decisive goal in the same way in the 81st minute, raising his tally in the competition to 57 goals.** **Real Madrid was forced to play with ten players after Carvajal's expulsion, after defender Trent Alexander-Arnold suffered an early injury.** **In the next round, Real Madrid is preparing for a long trip to Kazakhstan to face Kairat, and then will face other challenges in the group, including matches against Juventus, Liverpool, Olympiacos, Manchester City, and Monaco, before concluding its journey with a match against Benfica of Portugal, who lost their lead against Qarabag of Azerbaijan and lost 3-2.** **Real Madrid coach Xabi Alonso relied on Brazilian Rodrygo instead of Vinicius Junior, and the Madrid team controlled most of the match, but goalkeeper Gerónimo Rulli saved his goal from several dangerous opportunities, while the post prevented a certain goal from Franco Mastantuono in the 6th minute.** **Marseille exploited a mistake in midfield, where Mason Greenwood passed the ball to Weah to put it in the net, while goalkeeper Rulli saved Mbappé's attempts before the crossbar prevented him from scoring again in the 50th minute. Courtois saved his goal from a dangerous attempt by Aubameyang in the 57th minute, and Medina caused a penalty kick after touching the ball with his hand, which Mbappé translated into the winning goal in the 81st minute.** **In another match, Juventus Stadium witnessed a crazy 4-4 draw with Borussia Dortmund of Germany in an exciting encounter, where substitute Dusan Vlahovic restored the draw for Juventus in the last moments, scoring two goals and assisting the equalizing goal after the match was heading towards a victory for the visitors.** **Football fans recalled memories of the famous 1990s competitions between the two teams, especially the 1997 final when Dortmund won the European title. The match began with a goalless first half, but the second half saw an escalation in the pace of play and Dortmund took the lead several times, with Juventus coming back each time.** **Dortmund came close to scoring at the beginning of the second half through Maximilian Beier, whose shot rebounded off the post in the 51st minute, then Karim Adeyemi opened the scoring for the visitors two minutes later. Juventus responded through Kenan Yildiz with a beautiful goal in the 64th minute, but Dortmund quickly regained the lead with a shot from Felix Nmecha in the 65th minute, before Vlahovic equalized again in the 68th minute.** **The exchange of goals continued as Jan Couto gave Dortmund the lead for the third time in the 74th minute after a mistake from the Juventus defense. Yildiz almost equalized again, but the goalkeeper and the post intervened to prevent his goal.** **Ramy Bensebaini converted a penalty kick and widened the gap for the Germans in the 86th minute, but Vlahovic narrowed the gap in the 90+4 minute, and the Italian team managed to snatch the draw through Kili's header in the 90+6 minute after a wonderful pass from the same player.** **Arsenal of England achieved a valuable away victory over Athletic Bilbao of Spain with a score of 2-0, scored by substitutes Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard. Arsenal's main attacking line, which included Viktor Gyökeres, Eberechi Eze, and Noni Madueke, failed to reach the net during the first half, prompting coach Mikel Arteta to make technical changes that led to the scoring.** **Martinelli opened the scoring with his first touch in the 72nd minute after a pass from Trossard, before the latter returned the favor and scored the second goal in the 87th minute, sealing the match for Arsenal and spoiling Bilbao's return to the competition since the 2014-2015 season.** **Martinelli said after being chosen as man of the match: "I am very happy with the result, the goal, and the assist. We had a difficult match in a strong stadium, but the team showed a great personality, especially in the second half."** **Union Saint-Gilloise of Belgium stole the spotlight by achieving a historic 3-2 victory over their host PSV Eindhoven of the Netherlands in their first appearance in the Champions League. Tottenham of England opened their campaign with a victory over Villarreal of Spain with an early goal, signed by Swede Lucas Bergvall after he sent a cross that Brazilian goalkeeper Luiz Júnior misjudged, and it went into the net in the fourth minute.**
