Tuesday
Barcelona 2-2 AC Milan
Milan took the lead after just 24 seconds with the fastest ever Champions League goal, scored by Alexandre Pato. Pedro and David Villa helped Barca to turn things around, but an injury time equaliser from Thiago Silva helped the Italians to leave with a point.
Chelsea 2-0 Bayer Leverkusen
With 66 minutes played, it looked as if Chelsea would be frustrated in their opening game. However, David Luiz received the ball on the edge of the area and curled home a fine finish, which was later added to by Juan Mata.
Porto 2-1 Shakhtar Donetsk
An error from Helton allowed Luiz Adriano to give Shakhtar the lead on 13 minutes, but 15 minutes later Porto equalised through Hulk‘s powerful free-kick, after the striker had earlier missed a penalty. Their winning goal came six minutes into the second half when Kleber tapped in.
APOEL 2-1 Zenit St Petersburg
Zenit went in front just after the hour through Konstantin Zyryanov, but APOEL turned the game on its head and claimed a famous victory thanks to goals from Gustavo Manduca and Ailton.
Plzen 1-1 BATE Borisov
Renan Bressan helped BATE to a draw, scoring their equaliser 20 minutes from time after Plzen had earlier gone ahead with a goal from Marek Bakos.
Wednesday
Villarreal 0-2 Bayern Munich
The German side opened the scoring after just seven minutes through Toni Kroos, and with a quarter of an hour remaining, they ensured victory thanks to an effort from full-back Rafinha.
Dinamo Zagreb 0-1 Real Madrid
Angel Di Maria scored Real’s winner on 53 minutes. There were no goals scored by Brazilians, but Marcelo was sent off for the Spanish side with 15 minutes left to play.
After picking up a draw in the first leg away from home, Brazil are now favourites to lift the trophy when they host their old rivals in the second leg, in Belem on September 28.
Speaking to SporTV after the game, Neymar said: “The team that was created was good. It is a great result, and now we are playing on home court.”
Ronaldinho also gave his thoughts, adding: “We knew it would be difficult. It is hard to play here with a team that has some youngsters playing for the team for the first time.
“But we did well and I am happy I could help. Now, we have the game back in Brazil.”
