Arsenal’s Mesut Oezil (left) in action against Napoli’s Camilo Zuniga (centre) during the UEFA Champions League soccer match between Arsenal FC and SSC Napoli in London yesterday. Arsenal won 2-0.
DPA/Madrid
Chelsea, Barcelona and Borussia Dortmund scored important wins in the Champions League yesterday.
2012 winners Chelsea won 3-0 at Steaua Bucharest, 2011 champions Barca won 1-0 at Celtic, and 2013 finalists Dortmund thrashed Olympique Marseille 3-0.
Brazilian midfielder Ramires was Chelsea’s hero in Bucharest with a brace. Their other goal was an own goal from Steaua’s Australian defender Daniel Georgievski.
Chelsea are joint second in Group E with Basel, who lost 1-9 at home to leaders Shalke 04, on a goal from youngster Julian Draxler.
Meanwhile, a late-headed goal from Cesc Fabregas gave Barcelona a 1-0 win at Celtic, who had Scott Brown sent off.
Barca had to get by without injured idol Lionel Messi. The Catalans are top of Group H with six points, two more than AC Milan, who battled out a late, late 1-1 draw at Ajax.
Ajax went ahead one minute from time through young defender Stefano Denswil, only for Mario Balotelli to quickly level for the Italians.
Robert Lewandowski was the star in Dortmund with two goals against feeble Marseille. Dortmund’s other scorer was Marco Reus.
Dortmund are joint second in Group F with Napoli, who crashed 2-0 at group leaders Arsenal.
Newcomer Mesut Oezil and Olivier Giroud scored the early goals which put Arsenal on course for a second win.
Meanwhile, in Group G, in-form Atletico Madrid came from behind to beat FC Porto 2-1.
Jackson Martinez headed Porto into the lead, only for Atletico to turn the game around with goals from Diego Godin and Arda Turan.
Atletico are top of the group with six points, then come Porto on three and Zenit St Petersburg and Austria Vienna on one apiece.
Earlier yesterday, Zenit were held 0-0 by Vienna at home.
