Early Champions League roundup: Silva sets Manchester City on course to advance

For nearly 90 minutes, Manchester City dominated possession and buzzed TSG Hoffenheim’s net with chances that didn’t much rile the hosts.

The build-ups weren’t producing. So David Silva did it himself.

Silva poached a carelessly slow clearance and slotted home his finish in the 87th minute to hand City all three points in a 2-1 Champions League Group F win on Tuesday.

As expected, the Premier League giants managed nearly two-thirds of the possession and 15 shots, including six on goal, but the imagination was largely lacking. At least until Silva swiped Bernardo Silva’s cross, which Hoffenheim defender Stefan Posch took too casually:

City fell behind almost immediately, with the defense sleepwalking through the first minute and Ishak Belfodil scoring 43 seconds in:

Sergio Aguero pulled one back for City a few minutes later, deftly touching home a ball played in from wide by Leroy Sane.

The result was rather important for the reigning English champions, who lost their opening match at home to Lyon two weeks ago. A loss wouldn’t have spelled doom, as Group F is eminently winnable, but it would have meant City was sitting bottom after a third of the games had been played.

Silva made sure it didn’t come to that.

Ronaldo who? Dybala helps Juventus breeze to victory

With Cristiano Ronaldo serving a one-match suspension for his red card against Valencia in September, Paulo Dybala recorded a hat trick by midway through the second half as Juventus continued its perfect start across all competitions with a 3-0 win over BSC Young Boys.

The first goal was the nicest, with Dybala taking a long ball from Leonardo Bonucci first time to give Juve the lead inside five minutes. He also cleaned up a rebound off a shot by teammate Blaise Matuidi and tucked home a pass from Juan Cuadrado:

There are much more serious matters for both Ronaldo and Juventus to address at the moment, but Tuesday’s win offered a brief reprieve.

Joey Gulino is the editor of FC Yahoo and moonlights as a writer. Follow him on Twitter at @JGulinoYahoo.

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