UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: BAYERN FIRE CITY AT HOME, MOYES’ UNITED HELD

Holders Bayern Munich handed out a Champions League masterclass with a 3-1 drubbing of Manchester City on Wednesday while Cristiano Ronaldo's hot form continued with a double in Real Madrid's 4-0 rout of FC Copenhagen.

Franck Ribery, Thomas Mueller and Arjen Robben scored as Bayern left City chasing shadows for the first 80 minutes of a one-sided Group D encounter to end the Premier League team's five-year unbeaten run at home in Europe.

Alvaro Negredo pulled one back for City as Bayern finished with 10 men after Jerome Boateng's straight red card.

Ronaldo followed up his hat-trick in Real's 6-1 rout of Galatasaray in their opening Group B fixture with two goals against Copenhagen to take his tally to 55 in the competition.

In the same group, a dramatic finale in Turin saw Galatasaray, with manager Roberto Mancini taking charge for the first time, snatch a 2-2 draw with Juventus thanks to Umut Bulut's late goal.

Greece forward Kostas Mitroglou outdid Ronaldo with a hat-trick in Olympiakos Piraeus's 3-0 romp at Anderlecht and, also in Group C, Sweden striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored twice as Paris St Germain crushed Benfica by the same scoreline at Parc des Princes.

Brazil forward Taison's 76th-minute strike earned Shakhtar Donetsk a 1-1 draw at home to Manchester United in Group A after the visitors had led through Danny Welbeck.

Bayer Leverkusen left it late to pick up their first win, substitute Jens Hegeler curling in a free kick in stoppage time to seal a 2-1 home victory over Real Sociedad.

Earlier, CSKA Moscow secured their first points in Group D with a 3-2 home triumph over Viktoria Plzen who have lost their first two games.

Jurgen Klopp: If this is my only final I’ll still die a happy man

JURGEN KLOPP hailed tonight’s all-German final between Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich at Wembley as the perfect match in the perfect setting.

Boss Klopp will guide his Borussia Babes to yet another milestone and this would be the fairytale ending for a club that eight years ago was on the brink of extinction.

When he arrived in 2008 they had finished 11th in the Bundesliga.

He led them to back-to-back championships in the last two years and now they are one match away from being crowned Kings of Europe.

The charismatic Dortmund chief knows this historic occasion could not have a more fitting setting than Wembley — the venue of legends.

Klopp, 45, said: “If this would be the only final in my life it’s the perfect place against the perfect opponent.

“If I die in 60 years and that’s the only final I go to, it’s not so bad.”

Bayern Munich, who left runners-up Borussia 25 points behind in the Bundesliga, are the favourites. But Borussia have won five and drawn two of the last eight competitive matches these two have played.

They drew twice in the Bundesliga this season and Bayern’s only win in the last three seasons came in a German Cup game earlier this year.

Klopp added: “It’s an absolutely special game. It’s not just the fourth Dortmund-Bayern game this season. At this moment it feels normal. But, tomorrow we will feel a big difference, I’m sure. It’s a one-off and nobody wants to lose."

“We will use our tactical potential to bring them down to our level. And then we can beat them.”

Dortmund will be without injured superstar Mario Gotze, who is set to join Bayern after they coughed up his £31.5million get-out clause without telling Borussia’s board last month.

Klopp insisted they have prepared for several weeks to play without Gotze. He said: “We did hope for quite some time that he could play.

“It would have been a surprise if it had worked out but, of course, for the last three or four weeks we expected he would not be playing.”

Klopp chose not to wind up his rivals, claiming underdogs Dortmund will be under as much pressure as Munich.

He added: “I can’t say what the players of Bayern Munich think or if they have a feeling they might suffer a third loss in four years.

“If the outsiders do not feel the same pressure as the favourites, how stupid would that be?."

“You need to focus on the task. People have climbed Mount Everest knowing that 10 metres from the top they might have to turn back — but they tried anyway.”

Klopp’s only concern ahead of the final? The London traffic. It took Dortmund 90 minutes to drive from their Watford base to Wembley for training last night.

Cool Klopp joked, “We’ll have breakfast, then we’ll have lunch and a bit of a siesta and then there’s a meeting and then we’ll see how long to get to the match.

“We had police with us today. Are they not allowed to use their lights and sirens in England?.It would be very useful tomorrow. We had three motorbikes ahead of us."

“If they want us to make the game on time they might have to turn on their blue lights.

“If somebody knows a policeman, ask him. Please.”

CAF Champions League: Rangers Dumped Out

Nigerian club side, Enugu Rangers have been sent packing from the CAF Champions League after going down to a 3-1 defeat to Angolan side Recreativo do Libolo.

The Flying Antelopes before now were Nigeria's sole surviving team in Africa club competitions, but Saturday's away defeat meant the end of the road for the Enugu team.

Rangers managed just a goalless draw in the first leg played at the Nnamdi Stadium in Enugu a fortnight ago and were hoping they could at least get a score draw in the second leg tie.

Going into Saturday's game Rangers and Libolo were enjoying contrasting fortunes in their domestic leagues, while Rangers sit at the top of the Nigeria Professional Football League, NPFL their opponents sit at the base of the league in Angola.

That however counted for nothing as Libolo seal their place in the lucrative Group phase of the Champions League as they become the first Angolan side to achieve this feat since 2003

Chelsea Edge Man Utd to Cement Champions League Place

Juan Mata’s dramatic late goal earned Chelsea an unlikely three points in their quest for Champions League football as they secured a 1-0 victory at Premier League champions Manchester United on Sunday.

The Chelsea midfielder struck at the end of a rare flowing move in the 87th minute — Ramires’ back-heel finding Oscar, whose pass to Mata allowed his team-mate to drive the ball home via a deflection — to lift his team into third place in the table.

To add to United’s dissatisfaction, substitute Wayne Rooney claimed he had been brought down just outside the Chelsea penalty area in the seconds leading up to the goal.

It was a rare moment of memorable attacking play in an otherwise forgettable contest and a goal that ensured an ill-tempered conclusion to the game, with United defender Rafael da Silva shown a straight red card two minutes later.

The Brazilian hacked at the ankles of countryman David Luiz as the pair tussled for the ball near the corner flag, and players from both sides engaged in a subsequent shoving match.

There had been pre-game speculation over whether United manager Alex Ferguson would shake the hand of opposite number Rafael Benitez, with whom he has a frosty relationship, but the veteran manager went out of his way to seek out the Chelsea interim coach on his way to the bench.

Ferguson had taken the controversial step of resting key personnel and handed starts to reserve goalkeeper Anders Lindegaard and midfielders Anderson and Tom Cleverley.

It was a selection that will have raised eyebrows at Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal, the clubs in direct competition with Chelsea for Champions League places.

United’s performance will have done little, therefore, to allay fears that this is a United side that is far from firing on all cylinders.

After just three minutes, Mata picked out Demba Ba at the far post and the forward heading just wide while off-balance.

The Senegalese striker then misfired horribly from a promising position, the chance created after Lindegaard had flapped at a Mata cross unconvincingly.

Errors by Patrice Evra and Phil Jones then handed the visitors two more promising openings.

First, Lindegaard did well to turn a shot from Oscar onto his post before smothering the rebound, then Mata laid the ball off for Victor Moses, whose 18-yard shot rose harmlessly over the United goal.

Robin van Persie just failed to make clean contact as he ghosted in to meet a superb through-ball from Ryan Giggs and shot wide, but moments of quality such as that displayed by United’s Welshman were few and far between.