Man United win, Bayern stunned in Champions League

Manchester United overcame the shock of conceding an early goal to overwhelm Champions League debutants Maccabi Haifa 5-2 on Wednesday at Old Trafford where they hope they will lift the European Cup in eight months time.

The biggest winners of the night were Olympiakos Piraeus who thrashed last season's beaten finalists Bayer Leverkusen 6-2.

Germany's gloom was completed when Bayern Munich crashed to a 3-2 home defeat to Deportivo Coruna, while Barcelona made it four wins out of four for Spanish clubs over the two nights of opening matches with a 3-2 win against Club Bruges.

There was a shock start at Old Trafford where Haifa, the first Israeli club to play in the Champions League, stole an eighth minute lead through Yaniv Katan in their group F match, but United equalised two minutes later with a Ryan Giggs header and romped to victory with further strikes from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (35), Juan Sebastian Veron (46), Ruud Van Nistelrooy (54) and Uruguayan striker Diego Forlan whose 89th minute penalty was his first goal for United in his 27th match.

Rafi Cohen had scored a second for the visitors four minutes before the penalty which was awarded when David Beckham was upended in the box.

Bayer Leverkusen, who knocked United out in the semifinals last season before losing the final to Real Madrid, began this year's campaign badly losing 6-2 at Olympiakos Pireaus in the same group after taking the lead.

An own goal from Dimitris Eleftheropoulous after 22 minutes gave Bayer a bright start, but a hat-trick from Predrag Djordjevic spearheaded Olympiakos's impressive victory.

It was a terrible night for the Germans with Bayern Munich fighting back from 2-0 down to pull level at 2-2, only to lose 3-2 at home to Deportivo Coruna with Dutchman Roy Makaay scoring a hat-trick for the visitors.

Following Real Madrid's convincing 3-0 win over AS Roma and Valencia's 2-0 win over Liverpool on Tuesday, Barcelona made it four wins out of four for La Liga with a 3-2 victory over Club Bruges with goals from Luis Enrique (5), Gaizka Mendieta (40) and Javier Saviola (43).

It was a good night for the Italians with AC Milan beating RC Lens 2-1 at home with Filippo Inzaghi scoring twice and Juventus returning home from Feyenoord with a creditable 1-1 draw.

Dynamo Kiev proved too strong for a Newcastle United team struggling at the wrong end of the English premier league with a 2-0 win in Ukraine. Maksim Shatskikh opened the scoring with a brilliantly-taken 17th minute strike from 20 metres and Aliksandr Khatskevitch headed the second after the break.

In early action Galatasaray won 2-0 at Lokomotiv Moscow.

Earlier reports:
Real, Arsenal post wins in Champion League