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AMMAN — Jordan lost 7-1 to Australia on Sunday in its second match at the Asian Football Confederation U-19 Women’s Championship 2017 qualifiers in Nanjing, China. With only the top team from the four groups moving to the championship in China in 2017, Jordan had a tough task needing to beat Group A leaders Australia who are heavily favoured after they scored a 16-0 win over the Northern Marianas Islands in their opening match. Jordan came in second in the group after beating the Northern Mariana Islands 4-0.

LONDON — Manchester United hoped Jose Mourinho would provide a quick-fix.

Hire the manager renowned as a “serial winner” and the stupor of the fleeting David Moyes and Louis van Gaal eras would vanish.

There’s little sign of that.

If anything, results and performances suggest the record 20-time English champions are regressing. Even Mourinho calls his team “fragile”.

With five losses in his opening 16 games, Mourinho has made a worse start than Alex Ferguson’s two immediate successors who never came close to winning the Premier League or Champions League.

Under Mourinho, United is even a diminished force in the second-tier Europa League. A 2-1 loss to Fenerbahce on Thursday left United third in its group with only six points out of a possible 12.

Although Mourinho has previously expressed his disdain for UEFA’s Thursday night competition, the Portuguese coach does not expect his team to slacken. There’s pride on the line, if little prestige.

“Our problem started in our global attitude,” Mourinho said, berating his team for treating for the game like a friendly.

The only encouraging moment in Turkey for United was Wayne Rooney ending a goal drought of almost three months — a moment of personal satisfaction, certainly for the 31-year-old captain. But there is little evidence Rooney, so ineffective for Mourinho, will provide any potency on Sunday at Swansea.

Rooney’s only goals this season have come against the Turkish league’s fifth-place team and Bournemouth. No team of any might has felt threatened by the presence of the fading Rooney.

While Rooney symbolises some of United’s shortcomings, the burden of the blame should not rest on the striker.

There are clearly deeper flaws when the team goes through October without winning a single Premier League game, drawing three times and losing once on Mourinho’s humiliating return to Chelsea.

And in those four games, United has scored only once — failing even to find a way past promoted Burnley last weekend to drop to eighth in the league.

“Sometimes teams don’t score goals because of their philosophy, because the team isn’t aggressive enough and doesn’t risk enough,” Mourinho said.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic hit the ground running with four goals in four games after signing amid great fanfare in July, but since then the 35-year-old forward has looked his age by netting only once in 11.

“Some players in our attacking areas lack confidence,” Mourinho said. “They’re not sharp and getting the chances that they can.”

And the treatment room is getting crowded, too.

Centre backs Eric Bailly and Chris Smalling were joined on the injury list on Thursday by Paul Pogba, who limped off with a thigh injury.

Not that Pogba, the world’s most expensive player, has been looking like a 105-million-euro ($117 million) midfielder since rejoining the club in August.

Then there’s another of Mourinho’s signings: Henrikh Mkhitaryan. The Armenian played the last 30 minutes of the loss in Turkey after two months out of the team. But the attacking midfielder is a shadow of the player who scored 23 goals and set up another 32 last season for Borussia Dortmund.

“He has to do more, it is as simple as that,” Mourinho said. “We have big expectations in the club. We have lots of players for these positions and he has to play better than [Juan] Mata, he has to play better than [Jesse] Lingard, he has to play better than [Anthony] Martial.

“[Mkhitaryan] has to play better than them. It is as simple as that. Every manager in the world wants to win matches... I am no different.”

But something has changed with the two-time Champions League-winning coach, who is exhibiting the sullen and downbeat demeanour only seen later in his reigns at Chelsea, Inter Milan or Real Madrid.

United should have read the warning signs.

Maybe last season at Chelsea — when a title-winning team tumbled into the lower-reaches of the Premier League — was not a blip.

Can the 53-year-old Mourinho still find a way to innovate and rejuvenate United in the way Juergen Klopp has turned Liverpool into a title contender again or Mauricio Pochettino has refreshed Tottenham?

Sunday’s trip to south Wales offers the perfect platform to halt United’s four-match run without a win in the league against a Swansea side winless in nine and second-from-last.

Mourinho will certainly have a good seat to evaluate his team in Swansea, after being banned from the touchline for two separate offences towards referees. But the view from the directors’ box might not be pretty, based on recent displays.

AMMAN — Jordan plays Australia on Sunday in their second match at the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-19 Women’s Championship 2017 qualifiers in Nanjing, China.

With only the top team from each group moving to the championship in China in 2017, Jordan has a tough task needing to beat Group A leaders Australia who are heavily favoured after they scored a 16-0 win over the Northern Marianas Islands in their opening match. Jordan is second in the group after beating the Northern Mariana Islands 4-0.

The top four teams of the 2015 AFC U-19 Women’s Championship — champions Japan, North Korea, South Korea and China — received a direct qualification to the tournament leaving the 14 teams above to battle it out in the qualifiers. The winner from each group (total four teams) will qualify to the finals (eight teams in total).

The participating nations are:

Group A: Australia, Jordan and Northern Mariana Islands.

Group B: Uzbekistan, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong and Tajikistan.

Group C: Thailand, Myanmar, Palestine and Kyrgyzstan.

Group D: Iran, Vietnam and India.

Also on Sunday, Iran and Vietnam play for the qualifying berth from Group D after India were eliminated. Uzbekistan became the first side to qualify for the AFC U-19 Women’s Championship after topping Group B while Group C will play its matches starting December 20.

Jordan had qualified as the only Arab team in 2007, but in 2014, Jordan was eliminated in qualifiers for the 2015 AFC U-19 Women’s Championship. 

Similarly, this year, the U-16  women’s national football team failed to advance past Group A qualifiers for the 2017 AFC U-16 Women’s Championship. The team also failed to qualify in 2015 after qualifying in 2013.

The U-17 team participated in the Kingdom’s inaugural appearance in the U-17 World Cup where they lost in the first round. 

AMMAN — The national football team hosts Iraq on Sunday in the first of three friendlies in November as part of their training agenda for the 2019 Asian Cup qualifiers.

Head coach Abdullah Abu Zam’eh named the line-up over the weekend with minimal changes on the squad that will play Iraq before leaving to Tashkent to play Uzbekistan on November 10 and host the Lebanese team on the 15th.

Abu Zam’eh underlined the importance of the upcoming three matches which he said would help boost “cohesiveness and help improve the national team’s FIFA ranking” which dropped 18 places to 104th in the latest table.

Jordan is now at it’s lowest ranking of 2016 and dropped out of the Asian top 10 after unimpressive results last month losing to the Moroccan second tier team 2-1 and holding Oman 1-1 after three earlier results in which they held Bahrain 0-0, Lebanon 1-1 and lost 3-2 to Qatar.

One more team booked a ticket in the knockout stage of the Champions League on Wednesday and it was not the star-studded defending champion, Real Madrid.

Needing a win at Legia Warsaw to advance, Madrid squandered a 2-0 lead and allowed the Polish side to earn their first point of the campaign in what became a highly embarrassing 3-3 draw for the Spanish powerhouse.

But while Zinedine Zidane’s team struggled, Borussia Dortmund had no such trouble and advanced to the knockout stages with two games to spare after a 1-0 win over Sporting Lisbon. They join Arsenal, Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid and five-time winner Bayern Munich, that all qualified on Tuesday.

Zidane said he was not surprised by a result that saw his team slip to second place in Group F, two points behind Dortmund.

“It was a strange match, it didn’t go the way we wanted it to,” the Madrid manager said. “We lacked a bit of everything. Above all, when you score two goals we dropped our intensity, and when you do that they can score. Now we are going to forget this game.”

Polish supporters did not have a chance to celebrate at Wojska Polskiego Stadium, as the doors had been closed to the public by UEFA as a penalty for fans’ racist behaviour and the fireworks thrown during a previous loss to Dortmund.

Coming off a hat trick in the Spanish league, Cristiano Ronaldo finished empty-handed and remains two goals short of scoring his 100th goal in European competition.

Leicester dropped the first points in their first foray into the Champions League and need to wait for another round of matches to seal a place in the last 16.

Here’s a look at what happened in the Champions League on Wednesday in detail:

Group E

In a tightly contested group, Monaco took a big step towards qualifying with a 3-0 win over CSKA Moscow and Bayer Leverkusen claimed their first victory of the campaign at the expense of Tottenham.

Monaco are now top of the group with eight points, two more than Leverkusen. Tottenham is another two points behind.

Valere Germain took advantage of some hapless goalkeeping from Igor Akinfeev to open the scoring in the 13th minute. Radamel Falcao added Monaco’s second from Benjamin Mendy’s cross in the 29th and then used some neat footwork to make it 3-0 in the 41st.

A record Tottenham attendance of 85,512 at its temporary Wembley Stadium home saw Kevin Kampl score in the 65th minute with a deflected shot for a 1-0 win which lifted Leverkusen into second place.

Group F

Madrid looked set to romp to another big win after Gareth Bale netted an amazing opener from distance in the first minute before then setting up Benzema to make it 2-0.

But Madrid’s slack defence — and overconfidence — let Legia rally in stunning fashion to take the lead. Vadis Odjidja and Miroslav Radovic struck from long range before Thibault Moulin also scored from outside the area in the 83rd.

Madrid was facing a humiliating defeat until Mateo Kovacic fired in from near the edge of the box to at least rescue a point.

Dortmund left their top striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang watching from the stands as his backup, Adrian Ramos, scored the only goal in the 12th minute of a 1-0 win over Sporting Lisbon.

Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel said Gabon striker Aubameyang was left out for “internal reasons”.

The German side is atop the standings on 10 points, with Madrid trailing by two points and Sporting five further back.

Group G

Following three straight wins, Leicester were held to a scoreless draw at FC Copenhagen and must now wait for a home game against a Brugge side that lost 1-0 at FC Porto for another chance to advance.

Leicester dominate the group with 10 points, followed by Porto with seven, while Copenhagen is in third spot with five points.

Leicester goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel dived to his right to claw away a downward header from Andreas Cornelius in injury time to earn the draw.

Andre Silva headed home for Porto in the 37th minute at the Estadio do Dragao to end a winless drought at home in European competitions. The ball deflected off the shoulder of Brugge midfielder Tomas Pina before going into the top corner by the far post. It was Silva’s fourth goal in his last four matches with Porto.

The result eliminated Brugge, which are yet to win a point after four matches.

Group H

Sevilla moved closer to the knockout stages after easing to a 4-0 win over a Dinamo Zagreb side that played the entire second half with 10 men. Dinamo defender Petar Stojanovic received a red card just before the break with the score at 1-0.

Sevilla dominated throughout the match at its Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium, with goals from Luciano Vietto, Sergio Escudero, Steven N’Zonzi and Wissam Ben Yedder putting the result beyond doubt.

Sevilla, which had won the Europa League for the previous three seasons, lead Group H with 10 points. Dinamo were left with zero points.

Juventus have eight points after drawing 1-1 with Lyon, which have four.

The Italian host missed the chance to ensure qualification with a victory.

Gonzalo Higuain netted a penalty in the 13th minute but missed an open goal shortly before half-time. Juventus looked on course for the win but Corentin Tolisso levelled six minutes from time.

AMMAN  — Jordan plays the Northern Mariana Islands on Friday in their opening match of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-19 Women’s Championship 2017 qualifiers in Nanjing, China.

The national team will seek to score an opening win ahead of their vital match against Group A favourites Australia, which scored a 16-0  (half-time 11-0) win over the Northern Marianas. Jordan will play Australia on November 6 with the top team from each group moving to the championship in 2017. 

Asian teams are in a 14-nation race  with the aim to qualify to the finals with the top four teams of the 2015 AFC U-19 Championship — champions Japan, North Korea, South Korea and China — receiving a direct qualification to the tournament leaving the 14 teams above to battle it out in the qualifiers. The winner from each group (total four teams) will qualify to the finals (eight teams in total).

The participating nations are:

Group A: Australia, Jordan and Northern Mariana Islands.

Group B: Uzbekistan, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong and Tajikistan.

Group C:  Thailand, Myanmar, Palestine and Kyrgyzstan.

Group D: Iran, Vietnam and India.

Uzbekistan became the first side to qualify for the AFC U-19 Women’s Championship China 2017 after beating Chinese Taipei 1-0 in its last qualifying match in Group B .

Jordan had qualified as the only Arab team in 2007. In 2014, Jordan was eliminated from Group A qualifiers for the 2015 AFC U-19 Women’s Championship.

This year, the U-16 women’s national football team failed to advance past Group A qualifiers for the 2017 AFC U-16 Women’s Championship. The U-16 girls team also failed to qualify in 2015 after qualifying in 2013.

Some members of the U-19 team were on the U-17 team line-up which participated in the Kingdom’s inaugural appearance in the U-17 World Cup in which it lost in the first round 5-0 to New Zealand, 4-1 to Mexico and 6-0 to Spain.

GENEVA — Four teams, including five-time winner Bayern Munich, sealed early places in the Champions League knockout rounds on Tuesday.

Barcelona, shockingly, was not among them despite Lionel Messi’s goal taking a first-half lead at Manchester City.

Pep Guardiola’s team turned a memorable game on its head to win 3-1, and end the English side’s run of being outclassed by its coach’s former club in recent years.

“Now, we realise we won against the best team [in the world],” Guardiola said. “For the future generations, they are going to realise, ‘Wow these guys are able to beat the best team’.”

Bayern and Atletico Madrid both advanced from Group D, Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain booked their tickets from Group A to the round of 16.

Arsenal took an adventurous route in Bulgaria, trailing Ludogorets Razgrad by two early goals before Mesut Ozil’s sublime solo goal in the 88th minute clinched a 3-2 win.

Here is how Tuesday’s action unfolded:

Group A

Arsenal and PSG are tied on 10 points and each could win the group — and seeded status in the round of 16 draw — with victory when they play in London on November 23.

Both needed late goals to secure three points on Tuesday.

PSG dominated at Basel but a 2-1 win was only sealed in the 90th by defender Thomas Meunier’s volleyed shot from outside the penalty area into the top right corner of the net. The Swiss side was down to 10 men at the time, following an 84th minute red card for midfielder Geoffroy Serey Die.

Basel’s leveller in the 76th was also a stunner. Substitute Luca Zuffi’s dipping shot from 35 metres out deceived goalkeeper Alphonse Areola.

PSG had led in the 43rd when Blaise Matuidi diverted Meunier’s shot across the goalmouth with a deft flick off his right heel.

Arsenal advanced from its group for a 17th consecutive season under coach Arsene Wenger.

Down 2-0 after 15 minutes, the game was soon level through goals by Granit Xhaka and Olivier Giroud.

Ozil then perhaps bettered his hat trick in a 6-0 rout of Ludogorets last month. He collected a through ball, lifted it over goalkeeper Milan Borjan, and then glided past two defenders before calmly slotting into an empty net.

Group B

In a tight group, Napoli and Benfica are on seven points with unbeaten Besiktas on six.

Penalties were key to Besiktas and Napoli drawing 1-1 in Istanbul, and Benfica beating visiting Dynamo Kiev 1-0.

Besiktas led in the 79th when Ricardo Queresma scored from the spot, and Napoli talisman Marek Hamsik’s arching shot from distance levelled three minutes later.

There were reports that a Napoli fan was stabbed before the match in an Istanbul metro station after a clash between supporters.

Eduardo Salvio put Benfica ahead with a powerfully hit spot-kick in first-half stoppage time, and Dynamo was denied an equaliser when goalkeeper Ederson saved a penalty from Junior Moraes.

Group C

Manchester City had lost all five Champions League games against Barcelona since 2012 — including a 4-0 mauling at Camp Nou two weeks ago.

Messi’s 90th goal in Europe’s top club competition in the 21st minute, finishing a clinical counterattack, suggested a repeat.

However, inspired by Kevin De Bruyne, Guardiola’s team fought back first through Ilkay Gundogan in the 39th.

De Bruyne fired in a free kick in the 51st, and then sent a stunning through-ball for the third, slammed in by Gundogan from close range in the 74th.

Celtic did City a favour by levelling late in a 1-1 draw at Borussia Moenchengladbach. Moussa Dembele’s penalty in the 76th cancelled out Lars Stindl’s opener in the 32nd.

Barcelona leads with nine points, two clear of Man City. ‘Gladbach has four, trailing City by three points before they meet in Germany on November 23. Celtic has only an outside chance on two points.

Group D

Atletico, beaten finalist in two of the past three seasons, is the only club with four wins.

Antoine Griezmann’s stoppage time goal, adding to his acrobatic opener in the 28th, clinched a 2-1 win against Russian newcomer Rostov. Sardar Azmoun’s leveller in the 30th was the first goal conceded by Atletico goalkeeper Jan Oblak in this season’s competition.

Bayern forward Robert Lewandowski scored twice in a comeback 2-1 win in Eindhoven, where PSV led through defender Santiago Arias in the 14th.

Lewandowski already struck a post and the crossbar with headers before he scored with a 34th-minute penalty. The Poland star finished off a cross by David Alaba in the 74th, and later had another shot hit the bar.

Rostov and PSV have a point each, and Bayern has nine, trailing Atletico by three.

Bayern hosts Atletico in the last game next month, and whichever finishes runner-up will likely be the most dangerous unseeded team in the round of 16 draw.

Prize money

Teams advancing Tuesday ensured an extra 5.5 million euros ($6.1 million) payment from UEFA for playing in the round of 16.

UEFA pays a basic fee of 12 million euros ($13.3 million) to clubs in the group stage, and adds 1.5 million euros ($1.66 million) for each win and 500,000 euros ($553,000) for a draw.

The 32 group-stage teams share a UEFA prize fund of more than 1.3 billion euros ($1.45 billion).

Earlier Tuesday, UEFA said Manchester City got the biggest payday last season — collecting 83.8 million euros ($92.6 million) despite reaching only the semifinals. City’s total was boosted by a share of valuable British television rights.

BARCELONA — Unless Cristiano Ronaldo suddenly decides to add mercy to his list of virtues, the Real Madrid forward will have a good shot at scoring his 100th goal in European competition on Wednesday.

Ronaldo, who once aptly described himself as “rich, handsome and a great player”, is two goals short of that landmark before Madrid visits Legia Warsaw in the Champions League on Wednesday.

The Portugal forward arrives primed for more goals after recovering his ruthless touch on Saturday, when he scored his 38th career hat trick in a 4-1 win at Alaves in the Spanish league.

Ronaldo is the all-time leading scorer in the Champions League, with 95 of his European goals coming in the tournament he helped Madrid win for a record 11th time last season.

But Barcelona rival Lionel Messi has closed the gap with Ronaldo in their never-ending scoring duel after netting six goals to lead the Champions League this season. That’s compared to Ronaldo’s two so far. Messi has 89 Champions League goals, and 92 in all UEFA competitions.

Legia looks like easy pickings for Ronaldo. The Polish team has lost all three group matches and conceded a tournament-high 13 goals.

And its players will face Madrid all alone at Wojska Polskiego Stadium, whose doors will be closed to the public by UEFA as a penalty for fans’ racist behaviour and the fireworks thrown during a previous loss to Borussia Dortmund.

Madrid, which beat Legia 5-1 in their first meeting without any goals from Ronaldo, are undefeated in 26 matches across all competitions dating back to last season’s quarter-finals. They have won their last five matches overall by the combined score of 24-5.

Gareth Bale will also be eager to shine after signing a new contract with Madrid through 2022.

The only worry for Madrid is the absence of injured centre backs Pepe and Sergio Ramos.

Madrid will qualify for the last 16 if it wins and Dortmund beats Sporting Lisbon in the other Group F match.

Here are some other things to know about Wednesday’s matches:

Group E

Group E is proving to be this season’s most competitive quartet.

Only three points separate leader Monaco from last-place CSKA Moscow before they meet in the Mediterranean principality. Monaco has been boosted this campaign by the arrival of Poland defender Kamil Glik, whose late goal earned a draw against Bayer Leverkusen.

Tottenham hosts Leverkusen with both sides hoping for a win combined with a Monaco slip to move to the top of the group. Spurs have not won in five matches across all competitions without injured striker Harry Kane.

Group F

Dortmund, like Madrid, can advance with a win over Sporting Lisbon.

Mario Goetze, who returned to Dortmund this season from Bayern Munich, has shown some flashes of his rich talent. But more will be needed for Dortmund make another run to the final like in 2013, which Goetze missed because of injury.

“To do it would be my biggest dream come true. I’ve been working every day for it,” Goetze said. “Yet that was a long-time ago. I’m focusing on the future and on this Champions League season. It’s not going to be easy next time against Sporting.”

Group G

Its Premier League title defence may be in serious trouble, but Leicester City is outperforming the other English sides in its first foray in the Champions League.

Three wins in as many matches mean Leicester can seal a place in the knockout rounds with another win over FC Copenhagen.

In the other group match, FC Porto welcomes Brugge hoping to break a run of four home matches without a victory in Europe.

Group H

Juventus and Sevilla are level at the top of Group H and can go through with victories in their respective home matches against Lyon and Dinamo Zagreb.

Juventus faces Lyon fresh off an encouraging 2-1 win over domestic rival Napoli, which allowed it to build a four-point lead in Serie A.

Sevilla will be without midfielder Samir Nasri, who has been playing well for the Andalusian side on loan from Manchester City.

Nasri scored Sevilla’s winner in a 1-0 victory in Zaghreb. He then picked up a left leg muscle injury over the weekend.

MANCHESTER, England — There’s no way Pep Guardiola will be leaving out Sergio Aguero this time.

Aguero started on the bench for Manchester City’s 4-0 humbling at Barcelona in the last round of Champions League matches, leaving many to question the sense in Guardiola omitting possibly his best player for such a big match against his old club.

Guardiola did it for tactical reasons, using playmaker Kevin De Bruyne in a withdrawn striker role to give City an extra body in midfield. Even if the tactic worked well at first — the game only really changed after City had goalkeeper Claudio Bravo sent off after 53 minutes with the score at 1-0 — Guardiola was widely criticised.

For the return match at City on Tuesday, Aguero will be back in City’s team.

“But I’m not going to tell you in which position he’s going to play,” Guardiola said, jokingly.

Aguero gave a reminder of his finishing ability with two excellently taken goals in a 4-0 win over West Bromwich Albion in the Premier League on Saturday. That ended a six-game run without scoring for Aguero — although he was a substitute in three of them — and ended City’s six-game winless run.

It’s good timing with Barcelona and its superstar strike force of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar heading to Etihad Stadium on nine points from a possible nine in Group C. Only a draw is needed to secure the Spanish side’s 13th straight participation in the knockout stage.

City is in second place, five points behind Barcelona and one ahead of Borussia Moenchengladbach.

Barca’s most pressing concerns are in defence, with left back Jordi Alba and centre backs Gerard Pique and Jeremy Mathieu all out. Luis Enrique will probably field a makeshift defence of Lucas Digne, Samuel Umtiti, Javier Mascherano and Sergi Roberto. Midfielder Andres Iniesta is also injured for the match.

Messi has scored back-to-back hat tricks in the Champions League, against City and Celtic, to lead the competition with six goals despite missing a match because of injury.

Here are some things to look out for on Tuesday:

Group A

Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal are tied on seven points and can both qualify with two group games to spare — if one wins and the other does not lose on Tuesday.

PSG travels to Basel and will be counting on Edinson Cavani adding to his haul of seven goals in the last six games. The Uruguay striker has 14 goals in all competitions — the most in Europe along with Barcelona star Lionel Messi.

PSG was flattered by the 3-0 winning margin over Basel two weeks ago, while Arsenal went even better with a 6-0 home victory at Ludogorets.

For the return match in Bulgaria, Arsenal should have in-form winger Theo Walcott back from a hamstring injury.

Group B

It’s not going well for Napoli.

Maurizio Sarri’s side has lost four of its past six matches, including a 3-2 defeat at home to Tuesday’s opponent Besiktas in the Champions League.

Napoli still leads the group on six points, one more than Besiktas and two above Benfica, which hosts Dynamo Kiev.

The Portuguese side won 2-0 in Ukraine two weeks ago.

Group C

Moenchengladbach is not just looking for a home win over Celtic on Tuesday. The German side will also be hoping that Barcelona takes points off Man City so it can climb to second place and have a real chance of advancing at the expense of City.

With games to come against Barca and at City, Celtic realistically needs to beat Moenchengladbach to stand a chance of a third-place finish and qualification for the Europa League.

Group D

Bayern Munich’s early season wobble looks behind the team before Tuesday’s trip to PSV Eindhoven. A run of three winless games was a concern before Carlo Ancelotti’s side beat PSV 4-1 in Munich, and it has had three more wins since.

Indeed, Ancelotti has suggested the dip in form may help avoid complacency for players who are so used to winning. Bayern will qualify for the last 16 with a win, provided group leader Atletico Madrid also avoids losing to winless Rostov at home.

Atletico is one of only three sides with a 100 per cent record in the competition so far — along with Barcelona and Leicester — with Yannick Carrasco grabbing the goals in 1-0 wins over Bayern and Rostov. The Belgium winger also struck twice in Atletico’s 4-2 win over Malaga in La Liga on Saturday.

Anything other than Atletico and Bayern’s early progression over sides with only a point each would be a surprise.

KUALA LUMPUR — Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso became the ninth different rider to win a MotoGP race this season when he pounced on a Valentino Rossi error to win the shortened Malaysian Grand Prix on a wet track at Sepang on Sunday.

The 30-year-old Italian started on pole but was forced to scrap for his victory in a thrilling race, crossing the line in 42 minutes, 27.333 seconds ahead of Rossi (42:30.448) and his Yamaha teammate Jorge Lorenzo (42:39.257).

World champion Marc Marquez, who clinched his third title in Japan two weeks ago, came off his Honda for the second week in a row but rejoined the race to finish 11th.

Dovizioso’s teammate Andrea Iannone was less fortunate and his race-ending crash meant he failed to get any reward for the ding-dong battle with Rossi which lit up the first half of the race.

Iannone had missed the last four races after suffering a fractured vertebra in practice for September’s San Marino Grand Prix but, after heavy rain had delayed the start, took an early lead from the second row of the grid.

Rossi was hard on his back wheel, though, and the lead went back and forth between the two Italians until Iannone came off with seven of the 19 laps remaining.

Dovizioso took up the challenge for Ducati and hit the front when Rossi went wide at turn one five laps from the end before racing away for his second victory in MotoGP, seven years after his first at the British Grand Prix.

The Italian was particularly pleased with the victory after finishing second behind Iannone at the Austrian Grand Prix earlier this year.

“That victory was mine but I made a bad decision and I was very, very disappointed because I thought I rode in a perfect way,” he said.

“To get a result now, this year, before the end of the season was very important.”

LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow was another faller from fifth place, ending his quest to become the first British rider to win back-to-back races since Barry Sheene in 1977 after his Australia triumph last week.

Rossi’s finish ensured the nine times world champion will finish second in the riders’ standings ahead of 2015 champion Lorenzo, whatever the result of the final race of the season in Valencia on November 13.

Earlier, Johann Zarco retained the Moto2 title after a dominant victory on his Kalex gave him a sixth race win of the year.

Zarco, who moves up to MotoGP with Yamaha next year, was the first Frenchman to win two Grand Prix world championships.