Dimitar Berbatov

LONDON (AP):

DIMITAR BERBATOV scored his first two goals for Manchester United in a 3-0 Champions League victory at Aalborg yesterday, and Real Madrid rode their luck in a 2-1 victory at Zenit St. Petersburg.

Although Juventus came back from two goals down to draw 2-2 at BATE Borisov, they fell two points behind Madrid. But Arsenal outplayed FC Porto 4-0 to jump above the Portuguese champions to the top of Group G.

Bayern Munich rallied for a 1-1 draw with Lyon to stay at the top of Group F by two points. Fiorentina and Steaua Bucharest drew 0-0.

Blunder

After failing to score and win their first Group E game against Villarreal, defending champions Manchester United badly needed a victory at Aalborg.

Wayne Rooney ran on to a pass from Ryan Giggs to give United a 22nd-minute lead.

Then Berbatov punished an appalling blunder by Aalborg captain Thomas Augustinussen, who played a back-pass straight to him for an easy shot home.

Berbatov sent Cristiano Ronal-do's cross into the net for the third goal in the 80th.

Happy with results

"I think we were quite comfortable," United manager Alex Ferguson said. "We missed a lot of chances in the match, but we are happy with the result. This was a good foundation to go into the next two matches with Celtic."

Influential midfielder Paul Scholes, however, could be out for several weeks with knee ligament damage.

Villarreal edged Celtic 1-0 to join United on four points in the group, the only goal coming from Marcos Senna's free kick in the 67th minute. Celtic and Aalborg have one point each.

Nine-time champions Real Madrid made it a maximum six points from two games by beating Zenit St Petersburg, last season's UEFA Cup winners.

Missed chances

Madrid were fortunate to go ahead in the sixth minute when Tomas Hubocan sliced a cross into his own net.

Miguel Danny turned home a cross from Andrei Arshavin for the equaliser in the 25th minute, but Ruud van Nistelrooy regained the lead for the Spanish champions in the 31st. Arshavin hit the post in the 78th and Zenit missed several more chances.

"St Petersburg deserved a draw," Madrid coach Bernd Schuster said. "But for some reason in the first half, they didn't play the way we expected them to. Only after substitutions in the second half, did they raise the tempo."