Lucky breaks for Juventus, United

Six days late, and only minutes from time, Juventus and Manchester United finally got away to winning starts in their opening Champions League matches on Tuesday.

Juventus, who had Edgar Davids sent off on his return from a four-month doping suspension, scored a last-minute goal to beat Celtic 3-2 in Turin and Manchester United scored in the last minute to beat Lille 1-0 at Old Trafford.

But defending European champions Bayern Munich could not break down Sparta Prague and had to settle for a disappointing 0-0 draw.

Juventus, United and Bayern were among the 16 teams in groups E-H whose opening matches scheduled for last week were postponed following the attacks in the United States last Tuesday.

So although teams in Groups A-D played last week, these were the opening games for the remaining clubs and they were again marked by the observation of a minute's silence for those killed in the atrocities in New York and Washington.

UEFA, European soccer's governing body, also stopped the playing of the now traditional Champions League anthem at all the grounds and kept the pre-match frills to a minimum.

The mood appeared to affect many of the players.

Most of the games took time to reach the fever pitch normally associated with Champions League matches but, by the end of the evening, plenty of dramas had unfolded.

LAST-MINUTE DRAMA

None more so than at the Stadio Delle Alpi in Turin where Juventus beat Celtic 3-2 in group E after German referee Hellmut Krug awarded the Italian side a last-minute penalty.

Striker Nicola Amoruso, who had only been on the pitch four minutes, picked himself up to score from the spot and give Juve all three points.

David Trezeguet had scored after 43 and 55 minutes to put Juventus 2-0 ahead, but the Scottish champions, playing in the Champions League for the first time, hit back to equalise with goals from Stilian Petrov (67) and an 86th-minute Henrik Larsson penalty before Juve's late winner.

Davids, back on the pitch following a four-month suspension after testing positive nandrolone, was shown the red card on 75 minutes for a second bookable offence after walking a fine line throughout his time on the pitch.

BECKHAM STRIKE

United also left it late to beat a determined Lille side 1-0 at Old Trafford in their group G match with a 90th-minute strike from England skipper David Beckham.

Lille defended superbly against the 1999 European champions and seemed all set to leave with a well-deserved point.

But with time running out they failed to block a cross from Ruud van Nistelrooy and the ball bounced off French legs into the path of Beckham who lashed it low past Gregory Wimbee, who had been outstanding in the Lille goal.

There were no such worries for Barcelona who won in Turkey for the first time on their fifth visit there since 1990.

Barca crushed Fenerbahce 3-0 in Istanbul to go top of group F with goals from Patrick Kluivert (25), Patrick Andersson (28) and substitute Javier Saviola (66).

Their only problem was to keep warm during a power failure that knocked out the floodlights for 20 minutes midway through the second half.

BAYERN AWFUL

Bayern goalie Oliver Kahn lamented his side's dull performance in the goalless draw against Sparta Prague and conceded: "We were awful. We played badly in a near-empty stadium on a cold night and that's all there is to say.

"It's just like in the Bundesliga. All the teams give their very best when they're playing against Bayern."

Bayern coach Ottmar Hitzfeld, who had said before the match it was time to return to normality after the traumatic events of the last few days and had urged his men to concentrate on the job at hand, was equally dissatisfied with the lacklustre show.

"Our pace was much too slow, especially in the first half, and we lost too many balls," he said.

Elsewhere, Bayer Leverkusen scored a 1-0 win over Olympique Lyon with Ulf Kirsten scoring 15 minutes from time to inflict the French club's first home defeat for 10 months.

Their miserable night was completed when Brazilian midfielder Juninho Pernambuco was sent off after 84 minutes.

In other matches, Porto got a deserved 2-1 win at Rosenborg Trondheim, while Spartak Moscow fought back from 2-0 down at home to draw 2-2 with Feyenoord.

Deportivo Coruna also scored a last-minute goal through Juan Carlos Valeron to force a 2-2 draw with Olympiakos Pireaus.