Champions League RESULT: Man City 2-0 Shakhtar Donetsk, APOEL 0-3 Tottenham, Spartak Moscow 1-1 Liverpool plus updates from Borussia Dortmund 1-3 Real Madrid

IAN LADYMAN: If Manchester City are ever to crack the Champions League, there will be more nights like this. Pep Guardiola's team were not at their engaging best but they still won the game.

If that sounds rather underwhelming then so be it. Down the years, that is how European Cups have been won. When you can't find top gear, make sure that you don't fall off the bike.

This was an interesting game, even if City did not reach recent stellar standards. Shakhtar Donetsk were game opposition and played some neat and incisive football in the first half. They could have scored on two occasions at least.

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DOMINIC KING: It was the 80th minute when the ball fell at the feet of Roberto Firmino, 18 yards out, right in the middle of Spartak Moscow's goal.

Here was the opening Liverpool had worked for relentlessly. His touch was good, the ball on his favoured right foot but then came the finish: High, wide and anything for but handsome.

Firmino dropped to his knees and buried his head in the turf. On the touchline, Jurgen Klopp, spun on his heels and drove his fist into his palm in weary frustration. He looked towards his bench for comfort but his assistants were all feeling the same.

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MATT BARLOW: As APOEL fans unfurled their protest banner demanding the return of the Elgin Marbles, Tottenham stole cheekily away into the night with three more precious points from their European adventures.

Not the work of Thomas Bruce, the seventh Earl of Elgin, on this occasion, but Harry Kane, the Duke of Chingford, the King of Spurs, the slayer of Cypriot footballing dreams.

When last on the island, Kane spared blushes, scoring a winner against AEL Limassol in a Europa League qualifier with his sixth goal for the club and making himself known to new manager Mauricio Pochettino in the process.

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APOEL 0-3 TOTTENHAM

BESIKTAS 2-0 RB LEIPZIG

BORUSSIA DORTMUND 1-3 REAL MADRID

MANCHESTER CITY 2-0 SHAKHTAR DONETSK

MONACO 0-3 FC PORTO

NAPOLI 3-1 FEYENOORD

SEVILLA 3-0 MARIBOR

SPARTAK MOSCOW 1-1 LIVERPOOL

Monaco's misery is complete. Miguel Layun, the former Watford man, makes it 3-0 to the Portuguese league leaders.

Scoreline does not flatter City. Bernardo Silva does well down the right before squaring for Raheem Sterling who places past Pyatov. That will be that.

Any hope of a Dortmund comeback has gone. Ronaldo gets his second of the evening after Luka Modric cleverly played him in.

Leroy Sane wins penalty after being brought down by Ordets. Aguero steps up but his penalty is saved by the impressive Pyatov.

Besiktas v RB Leipzig (currently 2-0) has been temporarily suspended due to a floodlight failure. In other words... the lights have gone out. 

It gets better and better for Harry Kane. He played the ball out wide to Trippier on the right. He took a touch and bent his cross in for Kane to head into the bottom corner.

Sensational from Harry Kane. Three points all but sealed. Sissoko to Kane and the Spurs striker places his effort in the goalkeeper's left corner with his right boot. He's scored a brace in four of his last five games.

Just as I was saying Dortmund have offered little their star striker pops up and gets them back into the game. Aubameyang converts Castro's cross from the left.

You really don't want to be defending this high against Gareth Bale. He has destroyed Dortmund tonight. Well timed run, looked up and picked out Ronaldo who scores in his 400th game for Real Madrid.

Bale supplies the cross from the left and Ronaldo controls his finish past Dortmund goalkeeper Burki. Dortmund have offered very, very little. Bizarre considering they've only conceded one goal in the Bundesliga this season.

City's creative genius is off the mark for goals this season. The Belgium international parked himself on the edge of the penalty area, the ball rolled to him and he curls a right-footed effort into the top left corner. Special stuff.

APOEL fans getting political with an Elgin Marbles protest banner which says: 'History Cannot be Stolen Bring the Marbles back'

Far too much easy for the Serie A side tonight. Eight goals in his last 10 games... Mertens makes it 2-0 with an easy finish from inside the six-yard box. Game over you'd suspect.

Henderson plays the ball across, Mane misses it and Salah at the back post can only play the ball back across the six-yard box and not into the open Spartak Moscow goal. 1-1 it remains.

Surely it's now only a matter of time before City take the lead at home to Shakhtar Donetsk. Leroy Sane is the the man who goes close this time but he can only drag his effort wide.

Who else but Harry Kane. He did, however, appear offside as he was played through but he rightly carried on and slipped the ball underneath goalkeeper Waterman.

FC Porto take a relatively shock lead against Monaco. The French champions had been on top but Porto, through former Monaco player Aboubakar are in front after half an hour.

Jurgen Klopp's side back on level terms. Exceptional work by Sadio Mane down the left before he played in Philippe Courtinho who slid the ball past Rebrov.

Alderweireld, so wonderfully reliable for the last seasons, does not seem quite so composed and commanding having been shifted from the centre by Davinson Sanchez and the regular changes of personnel at right wing-back probably don’t help.

Ben Yedder with a comfortably finish against a Maribor side who have yet provide any sort of threat to the La Liga side.

Beautifully executed free-kick by Fernando from 25 yards has Spartak Moscow in the lead. Not sure Karius could have done much about that as it flashed past him.

Sensational from Gareth Bale. Superb ball by Dani Carvajal and Bale controls his volley past Burki. 

No way this is ending 0-0 with Dortmund defending so high and Madrid all over the place at the back. We've made it to 15 minutes without a goal though.

Former Liverpool forward Ryan Babel makes it two in two in the Champions League this season after opening the scoring against RB Leipzig.

First goal of the evening comes from Naples. Insigne puts Napoli ahead against Feyenoord in Group F.

First home game in the Champions League since UEFA said last month that City won’t be charged again if their fans boo the official anthem, and it was loudly booed again.

No expense has been spared by Russia ahead of the World Cup and this stadium, Spartak's new home, is most certainly fit to stage such an occasion. The atmosphere is what you would expect in the Champions League from a partisan home crowd but there has not been any sign of trouble or intimidation. The huge police presence inside and outside will ensure that remains the same.

And that is winger Stathis Aloneftis (the clue of course is in the name).

Also represented: Holland, Spain, Belgium, Brazil, Norway, Hungary, Portugal & Greece.

Matt Barlow also notes: Greek flag fluttering over the stadium in Nicosia but clearly visible in the distance across the border is a giant outline of the Turkish flag, an illuminated mosaic glittering on a mountainside in the night. A reminder of a divided nation.

MATT BARLOW: Match programme has a mini feature on Ian Moores, former Spurs striker who played more than 100 times for APOEL in the 80s. Moores died in 1998 at the age of 43 after suffering from lung cancer...

Claudio Bravo gets the nod tonight. Possible that he'll be given a chance during the group stages and Ederson will then step in when City no doubt qualify for the knockout rounds.

NATHAN SALT: When the UEFA Champions League group stage draw was made, many feared the worst for Tottenham.

Holders Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund caught the eye with APOEL Nicosia seen as the side who could be on the end of some one-sided scorelines.

But a Tuesday night trip to Nicosia is far from straight-forward as Hugo Lloris and Lyon discovered five years ago.

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KIT HOLDEN: There are very few places on Planet Earth where Real Madrid have never won a football match.

The world's most recognised and European football's most successful club have beaten teams and won titles in Morocco, Japan, and Uruguay.

In the last four years, they have won Champions League finals in Cardiff, Lisbon and Milan. Yet they have never won in Dortmund.

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The Champions League returns tonight and three English sides will all be aiming to record crucial victories in their quest to qualify for the knockout stages.

Liverpool could go top of Group E with a win over Spartak Moscow, while Manchester City will take control of Group F if they can beat Shakhtar Donetsk.

Tottenham will be expected to take three points off APOEL in Group H as Real Madrid round off the high profile action against Borussia Dortmund.

Stick with me for live build-up and updates from tonight's action.