Manchester City and Manchester United both recorded successive victories in the UEFA Champions League courtesy of their back-to-back victories over Villarreal and Otelul Galati.

City were convincing winners in Spain as they made history by becoming the first ever English winners at El Madrigal.

Whilst United toiled at Old Trafford as they scraped a 2-0 win over Romanian champions over Galati.

But it is United’s noisy neighbours who will again hog the headlines as they controlled their Group A clash against Villarreal.

The opening goal arrived on the half-hour and it was Yaya Toure who picked up a David Silva pass before curling the ball into the corner with a sumptuous finish.

And the game was all but put to bed just before the break as Mario Balotelli converted a hotly disputed penalty.

The third arrived, again from Toure, when he glided through the home defence before wrong-footing Diego Lopez in the home goal and side-footing home a quite brilliant goal.

City are now second in the group as they climbed above Napoli – who lost 3-2 at leaders Bayern Munich.

A scintillating match at the Allianz Arena saw Bayern dominate the opening half and they led 3-0 at the break with the ubiquitous Mario Gomez converting a treble.

But the second half was a different affair as Napoli responded with Federico Fernandez heading home twice to make for a nervy ending. Bayern, though, held out.

Both sides also finished the match with ten-men with Juan Zuniga and Holger Badstuber red-carded.

Table toppers

Unlike City, though, Man United have climbed to the top of Group C after their 2-0 win over Galati.

Sir Alex Ferguson’s side took an early lead with Antonio Valencia firing home from close-range after excellent work from Phil Jones down the right flank.

But after that United failed to fire on all cylinders and David de Gea was even forced into one fine save in the first-half.

The game was finally wrapped up just a matter of minutes from time as Wayne Rooney saw his 25-yard effort deflect off Cristian Sarghi and fly past Branko Grahovac.

United find themselves on top as Benfica missed the chance to seal qualification as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Basel at the Estadio da Luz.

Rodrigo opened the scoring for Benfica just a couple of minutes in as he smashed the ball into the top-corner.

But the Swiss visitors continued their excellent away form in the Champions League as they followed up their draw with Manchester United by claiming another point on the road as Benjamin Huggel fired home.

Inter Milan are all but guaranteed top-spot in Group B after they claimed a 2-1 win over Lille at the Giuseppe Meazza.

Argentines Walter Samuel and Diego Milito scored either side of the break to set Claudio Ranieri’s side on their way.

Tulio de Melo’s late goal made for a nervy finish, but Inter sealed the three points.

Trabzonspor and CSKA Moscow remain level on points in second and third, after they played out a goalless draw in Turkey.

The Russians did have to play out the match with ten-men as leading striker Seydou Doumbia was red-carded.

In Group D, Real Madrid sealed their passage into the next phase after they claimed a 2-0 win in Lyon.

Cristiano Ronaldo fired home a first-half free-kick to open the scoring, before in the second period he finished from the penalty spot to seal a comfortable win for Jose Mourinho’s side.

Ajax are now clear in second place after a 4-0 thumping of Dinamo Zagreb in Amsterdam.

Full-back Gregory Van der Wiel opened the scoring on 20 minutes, after some great work from Danish starlet Christian Eriksen.

Soon after Miralem Sulejmani made it 2-0 as he rounded the visiting keeper to slot home.

Second-half strikes from Siem De Jong and Nicolas Lodeiro sealed a convincing win for Frank de Boer’s side.

Sky sports