Man United gain revenge
Bill Barclay
Italian clubs AC Milan and Juventus went on the rampage in the Champions League on Tuesday, winning 4-0 at Deportivo Coruna and 5-0 against Dynamo Kiev respectively.
Filippo Inzaghi scored a hat-trick for five-times former winners Milan in Spain, while Marco Di Vaio was on target twice for Juventus as Italian football, much-maligned in recent seasons, put on a show of strength.
Manchester United avenged their semi-final defeat by Bayer Leverkusen last season with a valuable 2-1 win in Germany. Ruud Van Nistelrooy scored twice as the English side made it two wins out of two.
Barcelona also won impressively, 2-0 at Galatasaray in Turkey, and Olympiakos Piraeus came down to earth with a shock 3-0 defeat in Cyprus by Israeli debutants Maccabi Haifa, for whom Nigerian Ayegbeni Yakoubu hit a hat-trick.
Last season's runners-up, Bayern Munich, were held 1-1 at RC Lens in France while UEFA Cup holders Feyenoord handed Newcastle their second successive loss with a 1-0 win at St James' Park.
In-form AC Milan are in control of difficult group G with two wins out of two after a wonderful display at much-feared Spanish side Deportivo, who had won impressively 3-2 at Bayern Munich last week.
Clarence Seedorf struck first for the Italians before Inzaghi, with strikes after 32, 56 and 62 minutes, wrapped up a fine victory for Carlo Ancelotti's men.
WASTEFUL BAYERN
Bayern let two more valuable points slip when John Utaka's 76th-minute goal for Lens in France cancelled out Thomas Linke's first-half effort for the Germans.
Manchester United, the 1999 winners, dominate group F with six points out of six after a satisfying win in Germany against Leverkusen, who were crushed 6-2 by Olympiakos last week.
Van Nistelrooy struck twice in the first half with two expert finishes after some lovely passing moves.
But the Dutchman missed the second half due to a tight hamstring and Dimitar Berbatov's 52nd-minute goal for Leverkusen meant the visitors had to hang on grimly for their win.
Maccabi joined Olympiakos on three points with their first ever Champions League win in front of 20,000 fans at their surrogate home in Cyprus.
Nigerian Ayegbeni Yakoubu's treble gave the Israeli's an unexpected triumph in Nicosia, which staged the match due to security concerns over the situation in Israel. Yakoubu missed Maccabi's 5-2 defeat at Manchester United last week due to suspension.
Juventus, European champions in 1985 and 1996, also turned on the style in Turin against Kiev.
NEWCASTLE WOE
Di Vaio's double and further goals by the in-form Alessandro Del Piero, Edgar Davids and Pavel Nedved completed a thumping victory that put the Italians level on four points with Feyenoord at the top of group E.
A searing volley by Chilean Sebastian Pardo after only four minutes at St James' Park gave UEFA Cup holders Feyenoord victory over Newcastle, who face a stiff task to qualify having lost both their opening games.
Barcelona's win in Turkey established them as strong favourites in group H with a maximum six points.
Patrick Kluivert and Luis Enrique scored either side of halftime to secure the Catalan club their success over Galatasaray.
In the other group H game, outsiders Club Bruges and Lokomotiv Moscow played out a goalless draw in Belgium. The Russians had Dmitry Loskov sent off late on.
