FOOTBALL – AN inspired Marcus Rashford celebrated his return to English soil by scoring twice in nine second-half minutes to give Barcelona a 2-1 victory over Newcastle United in their Champions League season opener at St James’ Park last night.
Missing talisman Lamine Yamal through injury, the visitors had to weather an early storm as Newcastle pressed high relentlessly.
The five-time European champions gradually gained control of proceedings until English forward Rashford broke the deadlock in the 58th minute, scoring his first goal for Barcelona with an angled header from Jules Kounde’s right-wing cross that nestled just inside the left post beyond Nick Pope’s reach.
Rashford’s inspirational night continued nine minutes later when he pounced on a rebound at the edge of the box, set himself up with a quick glide to the right, and unleashed an unstoppable strike that flew past Pope before licking the crossbar into the top left corner.
Anthony Gordon reduced the deficit in the 90th minute, tapping-in a low cross from Jacob Murphy in a quick counter, but it was too little too late for Newcastle.
Manchester City’s prolific striker Erling Haaland bagged a record-breaking goal as Pep Guardiola’s side kicked off their campaign with a dominant 2-0 victory over 10-man Napoli.
Haaland became the quickest player in Champions League history to hit 50 goals in what was his 49th appearance in Europe’s elite competition when he cleverly headed home Phil Foden’s perfectly-placed flick in the 56th minute.
Jeremy Doku doubled City’s lead in the 65th when he turned quickly and darted past two defenders before slotting the ball through the legs of goalkeeper Vanja Milinkovic-Savic from a tight angle.
Napoli were reduced to 10 men in the 21st minute when captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo was shown a straight red card for his last-ditch tackle on Haaland.
Sporting cruised to a 4-1 home win over Kairat Almaty, sealing the result with three goals in a four-minute second-half burst.
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