Lionel Messi scored his first Paris Saint-German goal and Luxembourg midfielder Sébastien Thill struck late for newcomer Sheriff to stun 13-time champion Real Madrid in the Champions League on Tuesday.
Messi’s brilliant strike capped a 2-0 win for PSG over fellow big spender Manchester City in what was a repeat of last season’s semifinal.
But the surprise of the second round was the Moldovan club Sheriff’s coup in Madrid, where the home team was repeatedly thwarted by Greek goalkeeper Giorgos Athanasiadis and missed a host of chances before Thill’s last-minute goal secured a 2-1 win for the visitors.
Luis Suárez also struck late as his injury-time penalty gave Atlético Madrid a 2-1 win at 10-man AC Milan.
Club Brügge and Liverpool also claimed away wins at Leipzig and Porto, respectively.
MESSI MAGIC
With all the attention on PSG’s star attacking trio of Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappé, it was unheralded midfielder Idrissa Gueye who opened the scoring in Paris with a hard strike inside the top right corner in the eighth minute.
But the home team was fortunate to be leading at the break with Raheem Sterling and Bernardo Silva both hitting the crossbar in quick succession, the latter from just a couple of yards out with an empty net.
Gianluigi Donnarumma also made his case for becoming PSG’s No. 1 goalkeeper with a commanding performance to keep City out.
Messi settled the issue in the 74th after playing a one-two with Mbappé, who returned the ball with his heel, and then dinking it over Ederson inside the far corner.
It was the Argentine star’s first goal since his summer switch from Barcelona.
City had been unbeaten in its previous 18 Champions League group-stage matches.
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