Juventus beat Manchester United 1-0 at Old Trafford on Tuesday to take charge of Champions League Group H with a maximum nine points from three games.
Paulo Dybala’s 17th-minute goal, a simple conversion after a low cross from the right by former United favourite Cristiano Ronaldo, proved decisive but the Italian champions could have returned home with a much more convincing margin.
United’s Spanish keeper David De Gea made a series of good saves including an excellent effort to keep out a second-half strike from Ronaldo.
Paul Pogba struck the post with a left-foot effort from outside the box in the 75th minute but Jose Mourinho’s side struggled to create openings against a superb Juve defence.
Meanwhile, Manchester City took a huge stride towards qualification for the Champions League last 16 with a commanding 3-0 win over Shakhtar Donetsk in Ukraine.
Manager Pep Guardiola may have claimed City are not yet be ready to win the competition in the build-up to the game in Kharkiv, but they underlined their status as favourites with an outstanding performance.
David Silva twice hit the woodwork before rewarding the visitors for their early dominance with the opening goal after half-an-hour and Aymeric Laporte quickly added a second. Bernardo Silva came off the bench to wrap up a victory that took City to the top of Group F 19 minutes from time.
The scores elsewhere were:
Young Boys 1
Valencia 1
Hoffenheim 3
Lyon 3
AEK Athens 0
Bayern Munich 2
Ajax 1
Benfica 0
Real Madrid 2
Viktoria Plzen 1
Roma 3
CSKA Moscow 0