Michael Owen scored his first Real Madrid goal on Tuesday to earn the nine-times European champions an edgy 1-0 win over Dynamo Kiev and leave Group B finely poised at the halfway stage.
The England striker slid in to convert a Ronaldo cross from close-range in the 35th minute at a rainswept Bernabeu and open his account for the Spanish club following a close-season move from Liverpool.
In Prague, Manchester United were held 0-0 at Sparta Prague in their Champions League Group D match as forward Wayne Rooney failed to repeat his heroics of two weeks ago.
The 18-year-old, who scored a hat-trick on his United debut in the demolition of Fenerbahce at Old Trafford, showed flashes of his prowess and shot narrowly wide in the first half.
Real went close again through Ronaldo eight minutes into the second half but there were few other clear chances for the home side, who were barely clinging on by the end of the game.
Real, beaten 3-0 away to Bayer Leverkusen in their opening game, revived their campaign with a 4-2 comeback win over Roma last month and a second successive home win was enough to put them level with Leverkusen and Kiev on six points.
Mariano Garcia Remon chose the most attacking line-up at his disposal for another must-win match and for the first few minutes Kiev seemed overawed at the sight of Owen, Ronaldo, Raul, Zinedine Zidane and Luis Figo bearing down on them.
Ronaldo almost made them pay for hesitant defending in the fourth minute when he closed in on goal and smacked in a shot that Olexander Shovkovsky did well to turn away.
Two minutes later the keeper made a mess of a Raul cross but redeemed himself by palming clear Figo's first-time shot from the edge of the box.
Zidane struck a post with a low free kick after Figo had been fouled in the 11th minute and Raul took advantage of more artless defending to race towards goal and fire wide.
Real were unable to maintain the pace of their attacks for much longer and Kiev began to go forward with menace themselves.
Kleber had good claims for a penalty when he was bundled over by Francisco Pavon and Maksim Shatskikh was only fractionally wide with a sweet shot from just inside the area after a neat move down the right.
Real were starting to look uncomfortable but quick thinking from substitute Santiago Solari and Owen provided the relief of a goal 10 minutes before the break.
At Monaco, last season's finalists Monaco took a big step towards the knockout stages of the Champions League with a 2-1 victory over Olympiakos Piraeus in Group A.
The home side made a flying start with Argentina striker Javier Saviola and Uruguay's Ernesto Chevanton scoring two goals in the first 10 minutes of a lively match.
