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's hat trick lifts United to victory

LONDON — Robin van Persie made up for an embarrassing failure from the penalty spot by grabbing a hat trick with two late goals in Manchester United's dramatic 3-2 win at Southampton on Sunday, earning the English giants a second straight win in the Premier League.

In a fitting way to mark United manager Alex Ferguson's 1,000th league game in charge, Van Persie equalized in the 87th minute before heading home a corner in the second minute of injury time for his fourth goal since joining from Arsenal for ?24 million ($38 million) in the offseason.

The Gunners showed earlier there is life after Van Persie when new signings Lukas Podolski and Santi Cazorla scored their first goals for the club in a 2-0 win over struggling Liverpool.

The loss leaves Liverpool rooted in the bottom three after the club's worst start to a season in 50 years, compounding its woes after a failure to add some much-needed signings to the squad on Friday's transfer deadline day.

In the day's other match, Aston Villa earned its first point of the campaign with a 1-1 draw at Newcastle, only being denied victory because of Hatem Ben Arfa's stunning second-half equalizer.

Van Persie's late show, which took him to 100 Premier League goals in 197 games, will have come as a mighty relief for the Netherlands striker, after his impudent chipped penalty was clawed away by goalkeeper Kelvin Davis in the 68th minute.

The score was 2-1 to Southampton at the time and United looked headed for a second loss in three games before Van Persie's last-gasp intervention.

"I don't know what I was thinking with the penalty. I was going to hit it hard but at the last second I changed my mind," Van Persie said. "I'm quite disappointed about it. I ask certain standards from my game and at 2-1 down you cannot take a penalty like that."

Ferguson, famous for what the British media calls the "hairdryer treatment" in the dressing room when his team or player underperforms, was all smiles after the match despite Van Persie's error of judgment.

"I was surprised because every time I've seen him take a penalty he usually rattles it into the corners, so I was confident," Ferguson said. "But he made up for it."

United rose to fifth place on six points, one behind neighbor and reigning champion Manchester City and three behind early leader Chelsea.

Arsenal is in eighth place, a point further back than United.

MADRID — Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice before injuring his leg to steer Real Madrid to a 3-0 home win over Granada on Sunday, the defending champions' first victory after three rounds of the Spanish season.

Barcelona, meanwhile, edged out Valencia 1-0 thanks to Adriano's first-half screamer to remain perfect after three games and lead the standings.

Madrid displayed little of the attacking flair it unleashed to topple Barcelona in the Spanish Supercup earlier this week, but Ronaldo's first league goals this season proved more than enough against the modest talents of Granada.

Ronaldo scored in the 26th and 54th minutes before leaving the pitch grimacing and favoring his left leg following a tackle by Borja Gomez that cost the Granada defender a second booking.

The Portugal striker didn't celebrate his goals.

"I am a little sad. When I don't score goals I am not happy," Ronaldo said, enigmatically adding that he was displeased for "professional" reasons with "people inside the club."

With Granada down a man, Gonzalo Higuain scored in the 76th to seal the much-needed win. Madrid had only one point after the first two rounds. It trails Barcelona by five points.

"Ronaldo is an important player for us, he is our goal-scorer," Madrid defender Sergio Ramos said. "I hope he takes advantage of (this week's) international break and gets better soon."

Also Sunday, Athletic Bilbao beat Valladolid 2-0 for the Basques' first win of the season. Sevilla drew 0-0 at Rayo Vallecano, and 10-man Levante came from behind to win 3-2 against visiting Espanyol.

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Torres scores hat trick; Spurs stay in contention

LONDON — Fernando Torres got his first hat trick in more than 2? years on Sunday to lead Chelsea to a 6-1 English Premier League win over Queens Park Rangers.

Tottenham returned to fourth place with a 2-0 win over Blackburn but Torres' first hat trick since September 2009 helped show that Chelsea is the in-form team of three aiming to qualify for Europe's club top competition.

In their first match since reaching this season's Champions League final, the Blues hit four goals in the opening 25 minutes in heavy rain at Stamford Bridge.

Daniel Sturridge scored after 49 seconds, John Terry headed in a corner and the rejuvenated Torres scored twice to give Chelsea a big early lead.

Torres struck again in the 64th for his first treble since Liverpool's 6-1 win over Hull 31 months ago, and substitute Florent Malouda scored in the 80th.

Djibril Cisse got a late goal for relegation-threatened QPR.

After just eight goals in his first 61 games since joining Chelsea for $81.3 million, Torres has four in his past two matches.

"I was feeling very good, very sharp, playing well, but I couldn't score," Torres said. "Now I feel I'm not playing as well as before, but I am scoring goals, which is the important thing for the strikers."

The Spain striker's first goal was very similar to the one that earned a 2-2 draw at Barcelona in midweek, a result that carried Chelsea to next month's Champions League final. He knocked the ball around the goalkeeper with one touch and rolled it into an unguarded net with his next.

A large number of Chelsea fans jeered and taunted QPR defender Anton Ferdinand throughout for his accusation earlier this season that Terry had racially abused him.

Terry lost the England captaincy and faces a criminal trial after the European Championship in the summer.

MADRID — Karim Benzema scored two second-half goals as Spanish leader Real Madrid closed in on its first league title in four years by strolling to a 3-0 victory over Sevilla.

The France striker struck twice in quick succession early in the second half at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium as Madrid bounced back from its Champions League semifinal exit to Bayern Munich.

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Gerrard hat trick fuels Liverpool win

LONDON — Steven Gerrard marked his 400th Premier League appearance with a hat trick on Tuesday, leading Liverpool to a 3-0 win over local rival Everton.

Gerrard opened the scoring in the 34th minute by curling a precise shot over three defenders and goalkeeper Tim Howard. The England midfielder then twice profited from good approach work by Luis Suarez, scoring in the 51st and in injury time.

Although a top-four place and Champions League qualification looks to be beyond Liverpool, the Reds are now five points clear of Everton.

"To beat Everton is always special, so to get three goals is a little bit extra," Gerrard said. "It was a great team performance. Everything we wanted from the game, we got it."

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