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CHAMPIONS LEAGUE WRAP: Man City cruise, Ronaldo inspires Real Madrid, Dortmund hit six

The first round of group stage fixtures for the 2016/17 UEFA Champions League season were played on Wednesday night.

In Group C's rescheduled match, Manchester City easily overcame Borussia Monchengladbach 4-0 at the Etihad Stadium.

Sergio Aguero fired home a hat-trick before Kelechi Iheanacho added a late goal to give Pep Guardiola a perfect start in Europe with City.

In Group E, Bayer Leverkusen were held to a 2-2 draw by Russian champions CSKA Moscow despite leading by two goals after 15 minutes.

Swiss striker Admir Mehmedi gave the Germans a 9th-minute lead from a seemingly offside position when controlling a slipped through ball which defected off Hakan Calhanoglu.

Calhanoglu then doubled Leverkusen's lead with a deflected effort from the edge of the area six minutes later.

But CSKA respondedthrough Alan Dzagoev with a fine finish on 36 minutes before pulling level moments later courtesy of Roman Eremenko.

The other group fixture saw Monaco beat Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 in front of a massive 85,000 attendance at Wembley Stadium.

Bernardo Silva and Thomas Lemar had the French visitors two to the good before Toby Alderweireld pulled one back for Spurs who were unable to find another goal despite dominating the second half.

Group F produced a dramatic finish to Real Madrid's eventual 2-1 victory over Sporting Lisbon.

Bruno Cesar's 47th-minute strike had the Portuguese giants heading for a shock upset at the Santiago Bernabeu before former Sporting star Cristiano Ronaldo came up with a stellar free-kick from range prior to Alvaro Morata's headed winner deep into injury-time.

In Poland, it was a procession as Borussia Dortmund hammered Legia Warsaw 6-0 with six different scorers finding the back of the net, including star striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and summer returnee Mario Gotze.

Over in Belgium, Leicester City made their mark on the Champions League by beating Club Brugge 3-0 in their debut thanks to a double from Riyad Mahrez.

In the other Group G match, Danish champs FC Copenhagen held Porto 1-1 in Portugal after Andreas Cornelius cancelled out Otavio's early opener.

And Group H saw Olympique Lyon beat Dinamo Zagreb 3-0 in France while Europa League winners Sevilla held Italian powerhouse Juventus to a 0-0 draw in Turin.


2016/17 UEFA Champions League - group stage scores

Group C*

*rescheduled from Tuesday

Manchester City (ENG): 4 (Sergio Aguero 9'/(PEN) 28'/77', Kelechi Iheanacho 90+1')
Borussia Mönchengladbach (GER): 0
Etihad Stadium, Manchester England - 30,270


Group E

Bayer Leverkusen (GER): 2 (Admir Mehmedi 9', Hakan Calhanoglu 15')
CSKA Moscow (RUS): 2 (Alan Dzagoev 36', Roman Eremenko 38')
BayArena, Leverkusen, Germany - 23,459


Tottenham Hotspur (ENG): 1 (Toby Alderweireld 45')
Monaco (FRA): 2 (Bernardo Silva 15', Thomas Lemar 31')
Wembley Stadium, London, England - 85,011


Group F

Real Madrid (ESP): 2 (Cristiano Ronaldo 89', Alvaro Morata 90+4')
Sporting Lisbon (POR): 1 (Bruno Cesar 47')
Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid, Spain - 72,179


Legia Warsaw (POL): 0
Borussia Dortmund (GER): 6 (Mario Gotze 7', Sokrates Papastathopoulos 15', Marc Barbar 17', Raphael Guerreiro 51', Gonzalo Castro 76', Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang 87')
Polish Army Stadium, Warsaw, Poland - 27,304


Group G

Club Brugge (BEL): 0
Leicester City (ENG): 3 (Marc Albrighton 5, Riyad Mahrer 29'/(PEN) 61')
Jan Breydel Stadium, Bruges, Belgium - 20,970


Porto (POR): 1 (Otavio 13')
FC Copenhagen (DEN): 1 (Andreas Cornelius 52', red card: Jan Gregus 66')
Estadio do Dragao, Porto, Portugal - 34,325


Group H

Olympique Lyon (FRA): 3 (Corentin Tolisso 13', Jordan Ferri 49', Maxwell Cornet 57')
Dinamo Zagreb (CRO): 0
Parc Olympique Lyonnais, Lyon, France - 43,754


Juventus (ITA): 0
Sevilla (ESP): 0
Juventus Stadium, Turin, Italy - 33,261

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Andrew Slevison
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