Real Madrid survive scare

A review of Wednesday night’s action in the Champions League, including wins for Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund.

Real Madrid avoided the embarrassment of losing to minnows Ludogorets in the Champions League on Wednesday night after they fell a goal behind in Razgrad.

After Marcelinho scored for Ludogorets, Cristiano Ronaldo responded to missing one penalty by scoring another, before Karim Benzema got a second for a 2-1 victory.

Elsewhere, Bayer Leverkusen turned in an impressive performance to open their account in Group C and leave Benfica staring an early exit in the face.

Stefan Kiessling opened the scoring and Son Heung-min doubled the lead before Eduardo Salvio grabbed one back against the run of play.

But Hakan Calhanoglu swiftly netted another from the penalty spot to hand Leverkusen a 3-1 win and leave Benfica bottom of the group without a point.

Substitute Adrian Ramos ensured Borussia Dortmund maintained a perfect start to their Champions League Group D campaign by sealing a 3-0 victory at Anderlecht.

The Colombian’s late double cemented the lead given to the visitors by Ciro Immobile’s early opener and negated the efforts of home keeper Silvio Proto, who had kept the Germans at bay for more than an hour in between.

Markus Rosenberg’s brace gave Malmo a famous 2-0 victory over Olympiacos in their Champions League Group Group A encounter whileZenit St Petersburg drew 0-0 at home to Monaco in Group C.

Arda Turan scored the only goal of the game as Atletico Madrid defeated Juventus 1-0 at the Vicente Calderon in Group A.

Liverpool became the latest big-name English scalp to be claimed by Basel recorded a 1-0 win in Switzerland.

The Swiss had beaten Manchester United, Chelsea and Tottenham in the last four years and added the five-time Champions League winners to that list to move ahead of their opponents in Group B after Marco Streller converted a 53rd-minute corner.

Welbeck, the £16million deadline day signing from Manchester United, produced a clinical display to put the Gunners back on course for qualification from Group D and mark manager Arsene Wenger’s 18th anniversary in style.

The England striker swept home an inch-perfect pass from from Alexis Sanchez to open his account in the 22nd minute before doubling his lead on the half hour mark, with Sanchez adding the third just before the break.

Welbeck completed his hat-trick on 52 minutes, before Arsenal were reduced to 10 men when goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny pole-axed Burak Yilmaz, who converted the resulting penalty.

However, governing body UEFA are likely to launch an investigation into the unsavoury scenes 20 minutes into the match which saw play halted after several flares were jettisoned from the away end.