Juve soar while Madrid, ManU misfire

Real Madrid are having trouble scoring with Cristiano Ronaldo no longer on the team. His new club, Juventus, did just fine without him yesterday.

For the first time in more than a decade, Madrid have gone three straight games without a goal after losing 1-0 at CSKA Moscow in an early setback to the Spanish club's title defence in the Champions League.

Madrid are running into some problems in the post-Ronaldo era, having won only two of their last six games in all competitions. They arrived at Luzhniki stadium - where Spain lost to Russia in the last 16 of the World Cup - having also failed to score in their last two Spanish league games.

Not since January 2007 has Madrid gone scoreless in three consecutive games.

Ronaldo, who joined Juventus from Madrid in a deal worth €112 million this off-season, was missing for the Italian champions for their match against Young Boys after his sending-off against Valencia in the opening round of group play.

Paulo Dybala stepped up in the Portuguese star's absence by scoring a hat-trick in a 3-0 win to put Juventus top of their group.

Another of Ronaldo's former clubs is struggling, too. Manchester United's bus got stuck in traffic - leading to a delayed kick-off against Valencia - and the team never got going on the field either in a dull 0-0 draw at Old Trafford.

STALEMATE

The stalemate comes after a week when United lost at home to second-tier opposition in an English League Cup game and to West Ham in the Premier League.

CSKA's winning goal against Madrid came after 65 seconds, but it wasn't the quickest strike of the night. Hoffenheim scored even earlier - after 44 seconds, to be precise - against Manchester City, which fought back to win 2-1 and revive their Champions League challenge after opening with a loss.

With Roma beating Viktoria Plzen 5-0 on the back of Edin Dzeko's hat-trick in the other game in Group G, CSKA are the surprise leaders on four points ahead of Madrid and Roma on three each.

Bayern Munich extended their winless run to three games in all competitions by drawing 1-1 at home to Ajax.