Cristiano Ronaldo’s late winning goal capped a classic Manchester United comeback win in the Champions League.
In a less chaotic manner, Bayern Munich and Juventus also recorded typical trademark wins to top their groups with three straight victories and no goals conceded.
Trailing 2-0 at halftime at home against Atalanta, with Paul Pogba left on the bench, United’s wild season under manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer appeared ready to derail with last place in the group beckoning.
Ronaldo put the club back on top, 3-2, in the 81st minute after goals from Marcus Rashford and Harry Maguire to deliver a second straight come-from-behind win at Old Trafford in the competition.
Bayern routed Benfica 4-0 with late goals including one from Robert Lewandowski after standout saves by Manuel Neuer in the Lisbon stadium where it won the 2020 title 14 months ago.
It was an efficient 1-0 win for Juventus at Zenit St. Petersburg thanks to an 86th-minute goal by Dejan Kulusevski.
Defending champion Chelsea also cruised to a 4-0 win, against Malmo, but lost strikers Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner to injuries.
Salzburg was the other group leader in action, beating Wolfsburg 3-1 with goals from the kind of young forwards the Austrian champion excels in nurturing then trading on.
Teenage Germany forward Karim Adeyemi scored early before 21-year-old Switzerland winger Noah Okafor scored twice in the second half.
Barcelona finally got a win, 1-0 against Dynamo Kyiv, to end some unwanted historic streaks for the club and stay in contact in the group led by Bayern.
Villarreal, which was beaten by Ronaldo’s stoppage-time winning goal three weeks ago, won 4-1 against Young Boys to lift the Europa League champion from last to second in the group.
A 0-0 draw between Lille and Sevilla dragged down the average goals to three per game with 24 in total one day after a 35-goal rush in the eight games Tuesday.
The results: Group E: Barcelona 1 (Pique 36) bt Dynamo Kiev 0; Benfica 0 lost to Bayern Munich 4 (Sane 70, 85, Everton 80-og, Lewandowski 82).
Group F: Manchester United 3 (Rashford 53, Maguire 75, Ronaldo 81) bt Atalanta 2 (Pasalic 15, Demiral 29); Young Boys 1 (Elia 77) lost to Villarreal 4 (Pino 6, G. Moreno 16, A. Moreno 89, Chukwueze 90+2).
Group G: Salzburg 3 (Adeyemi 3, Okafor 65, 77) bt Wolfsburg 1 (Nmecha 15); Lille 0 drew with Sevilla 0.
Group H: Chelsea 4 (Christensen 9, Jorginho 21-pen, 57-pen, Havertz 48) bt Malmo 0; Zenit St. Petersburg 0 lost to Juventus 1 (Kulusevski 86).
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