The Champions League is back and the road to the Allianz Arena, Munich began yesterday as the 'blue' groups (television purposes) played their opening group fixtures. Half of which ended in draws:
Group E: Chelsea kicked off their Champions League campaign with a 2-0 win over Bayer Leverkuesen at Stamford Bridge. David Luiz started his first game of the season after an injury and scored the opener after 67 minutes. Juan Mata played in last year's campaign with Valencia and kicked off his European career at Chelsea with the second goal in injury time. Genk drew 0-0 at home to Valencia.
Group F: Arsenal's stuttering start to the season continued as they could manage a draw away to the German champions Borussia Dortmund. Robin Van Persie gave Arsenal the lead three minutes before half-time but it was cancelled out by a fantastic free-kick by substitute Ivan Perisic two minutes from the end. Arsenal gave Arteta, Mertesacker and Benayoun their European debuts whereas fellow new signing Andre Santos made an appearance later on in the game.
Olympique Marseille kicked their campaign off with a win away at Olympiacos. Lucho Gonzalez scored the only goal of the game six minutes into the second half. Rod Fanni only lasted eight minutes as the Marseille substitute was shown a straight red in injury time.
Group G: The shock of the night came from Cyprus as Apoel Nicosia beat Zenit St. Petersburg in their G S Pancypria stadium. Konstantin Zyryanov actually gave Zenit the lead three minutes after the hour mark. Apoel equalised through Jorge Manduca after 73 minutes before Ailton made it 2-1 just two minutes later. Zenit were the reduced to ten men with fourteen minutes remaining when Dani Alves was shown a second yellow card.
Europa League Champions, Porto, started their Champions League campaign by beating nine men Shakhtar Donetsk. Adriano had given Donetsk the lead after thirteen minutes but Hulk equalised for Porto after 28 minutes. Then Yaroslav Rakitskiy became the first player to be sent off in this year's tournament five minutes before half-time. Porto took full advantage with Pinheiro Kleber making it 2-1 for Porto six minutes into the second half. Donetsk were reduced to nine when Dmytro Chygrynskiy received a second yellow card ten minutes before the end.
Group H: This group had the both the most alluring tie and the poorest sounding tie of the night. Defending Champions Barcelona hosted AC Milan in the most alluring tie of the night. Alexandre Pato gave Milan the lead inside the first minute but Barca regained composure before Pedro equalised nine minutes before half-time. David Villa then gave Barcelona the lead five minutes after the restart leaving Milan the require a last minute equaliser from Thiago Silva to rescue the point.
The poorest sounding tie of the night saw Viktoria Plzen take on BATE Borisov in Czech Republic. Plzen took the lead through Marek Bakos in first half injury time. BATE equalised through Renan Bressan after 69 minutes to earn a point against the Champions League debutantes, plus it will be the only time both Plzen and BATE can say they've earned as many points as Barcelona and AC Milan in European competition.
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