Gladbach crush Shakhtar 6-0 with Plea hat-trick

…As Lokomotiv hold Atletico Madrid 1-1 Striker Alassane Plea scored a hat-trick as Borussia Moenchengladbach crushed their hosts Shakhtar Donetsk 6-0 on Tuesday to take over from them at the top of their group in the Champions League. Glabdach, who conceded late equalisers in their previous group matches against Inter Milan and Real Madrid, scored […]

• …As Lokomotiv hold Atletico Madrid 1-1

Striker Alassane Plea scored a hat-trick as Borussia Moenchengladbach crushed their hosts Shakhtar Donetsk 6-0 on Tuesday to take over from them at the top of their group in the Champions League.

Glabdach, who conceded late equalisers in their previous group matches against Inter Milan and Real Madrid, scored four in the first half, with two coming from the 27-year-old Plea, to kill off the game and eventually earn one of the largest away wins of the competition.

They are now top of Group B on five points from three games, one point ahead of Shakhtar.

Inter and Real, on two and one point respectively from two games, were playing each other as at the time of press.

Meanwhile, Atletico Madrid were held to a 1-1 draw at Lokomotiv Moscow in their Group A match after the home team’s goalkeeper Guilherme pulled off a string of superb saves to keep the Russian side in the hunt for a last-16 berth.

The result left Atletico second in the group on four points from three games, two behind Bayern Munich who were playing Salzburg away later on Tuesday. Lokomotiv have two points and Salzburg one.

Centre back Jose Gimenez fired Atletico ahead in the 18th minute with a fine header from 13 metres after an inch-perfect cross by Hector Herrera, a minute after Guilherme kept out a Saul Niguez shot.

The home side levelled in the 25th after a lengthy VAR check deemed Herrera to have handled the ball in the penalty area and Anton Miranchuk sent Atletico goalkeeper Jan Oblak the wrong way with a perfect spot-kick.