Spanish clubs sweep Champions League
Chris Wright, Agence France-Presse, Paris
Deportivo La Coruna and Barcelona completed a Champions League clean sweep for soaraway Spanish sides, while Manchester United also came up trumps in their opening match on Wednesday.
On an evening characterized by a welter of goals - 34 in eight matches - Deportivo scored the best win of the lot as they put paid to Bayern Munich's 29-match unbeaten European run at home with a brilliant Roy Makaay hat-trick securing a 3-2 win in Group G.
Barcelona also came through, but was rather less impressive in beating Bruges 3-2 in Group H at the Nou Camp with Luis Enrique, Gaizka Mendieta and Javier Saviola all finding the target.
With Real Madrid having swamped Roma 3-0 away on Tuesday to open their title defense even in the absence of Ronaldo and Valencia having stylishly dismissed Liverpool 2-0, Spain has set the rest of the continent the hardest of acts to follow.
But Manchester United, who beat Bayern in a thrilling 1999 final before the Germans won the trophy the following year, showed their own pedigree as they fought back from a goal down to hammer Maccabi Haifa of Israel 5-2 at Old Trafford.
Ryan Giggs, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Juan Sebastian Veron and Ruud van Nistelrooy were all on target before Diego Forlan finally bagged his first goal in a United shirt in 27 attempts from the penalty spot.
Yaniv Katan and Rafi Cohen scored for the battling Israelis.
United's Group F was the place to be for goals as rivals Olympiakos and last season's runner-up Bayer Leverkusen served up another eight in Athens.
Amazingly, the Greeks hit Leverkusen for six in a 6-2 win with Yugoslav midfielder Predrag Djordjevic scoring a hat-trick.
Bayern and Deportivo rival AC Milan edged out Lens 2-1 with Filippo Inzaghi scoring twice in a four-minute spell midway through the second half after Lens had done their best to strangle the life out of the encounter with a massed defense at the San Siro Stadium.
But lone French striker Daniel Moreira's late consolation with a close range volley did ensure the Milanese, five times European champions, at least had to sweat out the closing minutes.
While Manchester United claimed three vital points as a valuable springboard towards qualification for the second phase fellow English Premiership side Newcastle United flopped 2-0 in Kiev in the Group E meeting, with home team's Maxim Shatskikh smacking home a rasping freekick in the 18th minute and Aleksandr Khatskevich scoring the clincher on the hour after United keeper Shay Given was unable to hold an effort from Olexandr Melaschenko.
With trips to Juventus and Feyenoord still to come Bobby Robson's Newcastle are already looking a poor bet to go much further, especially given their disastrous league form which has ostensibly caused heads to drop all round.
Brazilian favorite Leandro had a goal ruled out on the half hour for offside as Newcastle struggled to make it a contest.
Elsewhere in Group E, Feyenoord and Juventus parted 1-1 in the Netherlands with former Nottingham Forest man Pierre van Hooijdonk leveling 15 minutes from time after Argentine Mauro Camoranesi had volleyed Juve ahead just after the half hour mark.
Barcelona's Group H rival Galatasaray of Turkey scored a fine 2-0 win at Lokomotiv Moscow with Adana Sarr and Arif Erdem netting in the closing 20 minutes.