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September 26, 2001

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Late goals give joy to Deportivo, gloom for United

Mike Collett

Late goals dramatically changed the complexion of the Champions League on Tuesday, most emphatically in La Coruna where Deportivo scored twice in the last four minutes to beat Manchester United 2-1.

Olympique Lyon also left it late to score a 1-0 win over Fenerbahce in Istanbul with Christophe Delmotte scoring the clincher two minutes from time.

Both teams scored in the last five minutes in Trondheim, with Alessandro Del Piero putting Juventus 1-0 up against Rosenborg in the 85th minute before Bent Skammelsrud equalised for the Norwegian side with an 88th minute penalty.

Diego Tristan Elsewhere there was a straight-forward 4-0 win for Sparta Prague over Feyenoord which saw Sparta go from bottom to top in group H and Feyenoord slide down from top to bottom.

Bayer Leverkusen came from behind to beat Barcelona 2-1 in Germany to maintain their 100 per cent start in group F.

Celtic secured their first ever Champions League win with a 1-0 home victory over Porto thanks to a Henrik Larsson strike while Lille saw off Olympiakos 3-1 in the nearby town of Lens.

In earlier action reigning European champions Bayern Munich won their first match after a 0-0 draw with Sparta Prague last week, running out convincing 3-1 winners at Spartak Moscow.

United Dumped
The most dramatic finale of the night came at Coruna's Riazor Stadium where, with time running out, Manchester United led through a fine 40th minute Paul Scholes goal.

United's only win in Spain came in 1999 when they defeated Bayern Munich 2-1 in Barcelona with two goals in injury time in the European Cup final.

Just when it seemed United were about to beat a Spanish team in Spain for the first time, they were beaten by two late goals themselves.

Walter Pandiani equalised after 86 minutes and Nourredine Naybet cracked in the winner three minutes later to send them crashing to defeat.

The result means Deportivo lead group G with four points from their two matches, followed by Lille (3), United (3) and Olympiakos (1).

Of the 16 teams that played on Tuesday, only Bayer Leverkusen maintained their perfect start to the campaign with a superb 2-1 win over Barcelona.

Barca, so impressive in beating Fenerbahce 3-0 in Istanbul last week, began brightly with Luis Enrique putting them ahead after 22 minutes.

But Leverkusen improved after a poor first half, dominated the play in the second and deservedly won with goals from Yildiray Basturk (52) and Oliver Neuville (69) -- and that after Leverkusen's penalty-taking goalkeeper Hans-Joerg Butt missed a 29th minute spot-kick.

Denizli Woe
While Leverkusen ended the night with two wins out of two, Fenerbahce have now lost both their opening matches, both at home, without scoring.

Following last week's home defeat to Barcelona, Lyon's late-late winner sent them crashing to a second straight loss and the pressure is mounting on Fenerbahce coach Mustafa Denizli.

Following the loss to Barcelona and this defeat, as well as a 2-0 domestic league defeat to Istanbul rivals Galatasaray, his job is hanging by a thread.

UEFA officials said Lyon coach Jacques Santini was unable to speak to reporters after receiving bad news concerning his family.

"He is not in a position to speak. It's very serious," the official said.

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