The second half of Europe's biggest competition started their campaigns yesterday with Arsenal and Chelsea faring better than Manchester United and Tottenham:
Group E: Last year's runners-up Bayern Munich required a late-ish showing to dispose of Claudio Ranieri's Roma; after a dismal first half Munich were booed off by fans but German starlet Thomas Muller opened the scoring twelve minutes before time. Miroslav Klose guaranteed all three points five minutes later.
Meanwhile Romanian outfit CFR Cluj Napoca surprisingly beat FC Basle at home; Ionut Rada after nine minutes and Lacinda Traore put them two ahead before Valentin Stocker put the Swiss team back in it. However it remained 2-1 and Cluj take all three points.
Group F: Another surprise result occurred in Marseille as the French giants lost 1-0 to Spartak Moscow, an own goal from Cesar Azpilicueta nine minutes from the end was all that could separate the two.
Chelsea started their campaign with a 4-1 victory over Slovakian minnows MSK Zilina; Essien opened the scoring with his third goal in two games after thirteen minutes. Anelka grabbed two more before half-time to really put the game to bed before Daniel Sturridge netted Chelsea's fourth three minutes after the restart. Tomas Oravec got the consolation for Zilina.
Group G: Real Madrid needed two goals from Gonzalo Higuain to beat Martin Jol's Ajax, the goals came on 31 and 73 minutes respectively.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic marked his European debut for AC Milan with two goals against French side Auxerre. They came within three minutes of each other on 66 and 69 minutes, he looked a lot better than he has done in recent seasons.
Group H: They say there are no easy games in football, well Arsenal proved that wrong by putting six past Portuguese side SC Braga. Fabregas got the ball rolling after nine minutes with a penalty then Arshavin and Chamakh made it 3-0 at half-time. Fabregas added his second in the second half with Mexican Carlos Vela also getting two late on to give Arsene Wenger the perfect start.
2008 Europa League winners Shakhtar Donetsk needed a 71st minute goal from Darijo Srna to see off Serbian debutantes FK Partizan Belgrade.
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