Ronaldo hat trick powers Real; Balotelli penalty rescues City

LONDON — Cristiano Ronaldo's second hat trick in four days allowed Real Madrid to take charge of the Champions League's toughest group Wednesday.

Pole position: Borussia Dortmund's Robert Lewandowski (left) goes past Manchester City's Vincent Kompany during their 1-1 draw in the Champions League on Wednesday. AP

Arsenal, FC Porto and Malaga joined the Spanish power in earning second straight wins in the competition.

Ronaldo's three-goal performance upstaged a spectacular overhead kick by Karim Benzema in Madrid's 4-1 win against Ajax, giving Jose Mourinho's team a maximum six points in Group D.

Manchester City's struggles in Europe's top club competition continued, though, after being outclassed by Borussia Dortmund in the same group. The English champions escaped with a 1-1 draw thanks to Mario Balotelli's 90th-minute penalty kick.

AC Milan kick-started its campaign by inflicting a rare home loss on Zenit St. Petersburg, with an own goal by Tomas Hubocan sealing a 3-2 win for the seven-time European champions. They have four points in Group C, two behind Malaga after the Spanish side beat Anderlecht 3-0 to be one of seven teams with a perfect mark after two group games.

Arsenal beat Olympiakos 3-1 and Porto overcame Paris Saint-Germain 1-0 to also maintain spotless records.

Ronaldo's first hat trick in the Champions League came after he also scored three against Deportivo La Coruna in the Spanish League on Sunday. He has 12 goals in 10 games in all competitions this season. With 42 goals, he is the eighth player to score more than 40 goals in the Champions League.

While Ronaldo's low curler from the edge of the area and a clever chip were impressive goals, they couldn't compete with the stunning acrobatic effort from Benzema off Ronaldo's rightwing cross.

"We played a very good match," said Mourinho, bidding to become the first coach to win the Champions League with three teams. "Benzema, Kaka and Ronaldo all played well. Now we have six points in a very difficult group."

Madrid already looks safe to go through to the knockout stage and on current evidence, Dortmund looks the most likely to join Real.

The German champions outplayed City with an attacking display but came up against a goalkeeper in Joe Hart who may have played the best game of his career. Hart denied Dortmund with a string of fine saves until Marco Reus finally put the visitors ahead in the 61st minute. However, Balotelli rescued a point for City.

"We kept ourselves alive in the group," said Hart, whose team is already five points behind Madrid. Dortmund has four points.

With his team struggling in the Italian League, Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri's job had been under threat heading into the match at Zenit, which was defending a 16-match home unbeaten streak in Europe. After taking a two goal lead through Urby Emanuelson and Stephan El Shaarawy, Milan was caught back by Zenit, but came away with three points when Hubocan knocked the ball into his own net.

"This is an important victory. It is not easy to win against Zenit on their ground," Allegri said.

The highlight of Malaga's easy win over Anderlecht was a stunning left-foot volley by Eliseu, one of two goals scored by the Portugal international.

All four of Spain's teams won Wednesday.

Also, PSG was brought back down after its opening 4-1 win over Dynamo Kiev, falling to a late goal by James Rodriguez at Porto in Group A. Kiev is at three points with PSG after beating Dinamo Zagreb 2-0.

In Group B, goals by Gervinho, Lukas Podolski and Aaron Ramsey guided Arsenal to victory at Emirates Stadium, putting the English team on course for a 13th straight qualification to the knockout stage.

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Van Persie penalty lifts United to win over Liverpool

LONDON — Robin van Persie ended Manchester United's five-year wait for a win at Liverpool on Sunday, and Arsenal maintained its unbeaten start to the Premier League season with a draw at Manchester City.

Van Persie converted a late penalty kick to clinch a 2-1 victory at Anfield after both teams had paid tribute to the victims of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster before the game.

United was a man up from the 39th minute when Jonjo Shelvey was sent off, but Steven Gerrard managed to give Liverpool the lead with a volley at the start of the second half — only for Rafael da Silva to equalize.

And Van Persie's winner prolonged Liverpool's worst start to a season in more than a century, while lifting United to second.

City is three points further back after Joleon Lescott headed the champions ahead in the first half, but then failed to clear a late corner, allowing Laurent Koscielny to recover a 1-1 draw for Arsenal.

Also Sunday, Jermain Defoe's winner gave Tottenham a 2-1 win against Queens Park Rangers and Demba Ba gave Newcastle a 1-0 victory over Norwich.

The day's action began with an emotionally charged meeting of English soccer's fiercest rivals as Liverpool played at Anfield for the first time since the release of a report into the Hillsborough tragedy that exposed the police coverup and exonerated Reds fans.

In a show of unity before kickoff, Liverpool and United players wore tracksuit tops featuring the number 96 — the amount of Reds fans crushed to death 23 years ago.

Luis Suarez even shook hands with Patrick Evra, with no repeat of the snub that followed the Liverpool striker being banned for racially abusing the United defender in the Anfield fixture last October.

But by the end of the game there had been chants from a small number of Liverpool fans about the 1958 Munich disaster which killed eight United players. And, despite pre-match appeals from manager Alex Ferguson, there were taunts from United fans directed at the home support.

The usual hostilities had started to rage after Shelvey was sent off for launching himself at Jonny Evans, who Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers felt should also have been dismissed.

"I think both players' feet are off the floor," he said.

There was also a heated exchange of words between Shelvey and Ferguson, who later said: "He was trying to blame me."

There was an apology — of sorts — from Shelvey later.

"I have also apologized to Sir Alex, just where I come from people don't grass people up to get someone sent off," Shelvey wrote on Twitter.

LONDON — Former England captain John Terry unexpectedly quit international soccer Sunday before he was due to face a Football Association hearing on a racism charge, saying his place on the team had become "untenable."

Despite being cleared in court of racially abusing Queens Park Rangers defender Anton Ferdinand during a Premier League match last year, Terry was facing a lengthy ban if found guilty by an F.A. panel this week.

"I have always given my all and it breaks my heart to make this decision," Terry said.

The 31-year-old Chelsea defender was fired as England's captain in February but was allowed to continue playing.

"I am making this statement today in advance of the hearing of the F.A. disciplinary charge because I feel the F.A., in pursuing charges against me where I have already been cleared in a court of law, have made my position with the national team untenable," Terry said.

Terry has no plans to stop playing for Chelsea, where he has spent his entire career.

But the F.A. could still ban Terry for eight club matches, the punishment Liverpool striker Luis Suarez received last year for racially abusing Manchester United defender Patrice Evra in a game.

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