Shakhtar’s Brazilians came to the fore as they beat Chelsea 2-1 thanks to goals from Alex Teixeira and Fernandinho with Luiz Adriano providing the assist for the latter. Willian, Ilsinho and Douglas Costa all featured.
Ramires, David Luiz and Oscar all started for Chelsea but couldn’t prevent their team from succumbing to a shock defeat, despite Oscar’s consolation goal.
An Alan double put Sporting Braga 2-0 up against Manchester United in the early stages but could not prevent a Javier Hernandez inspired comeback as they lost 3-2 on the night.
Rafael and Paulo Vinicius also featured for Manchester United and Braga respectively. Anderson was left on the bench for Sir Alex Ferguson’s side.
Adriano started for Barcelona as they managed to avoid being held to a draw by Scottish champions Celtic with goals from Andres Iniesta and Jordi Alba to win 2-1.
Diego Alves played in goal for Valencia with Jonas coming off the bench as a Robert Soladado hat trick fired the side to a 3-0 win over BATE Borisov.
Rafael Carioca opened the scoring for Spartak Moscow before Benfica’s Lima equalised. Jardel’s own goal proved to be decisive as Spartak ran out 2-1 winners.
Lucio’s Juventus narrowly avoided a shock defeat to FC Nordsjaelland as striker Vucinic fired home an equalizer in the last ten minutes after being led for much of the second half.
Dante started for Bayern Munich in their 1-1 draw against Lille with Luiz Gustavo coming off the bench in the dying stages.
And finally, Felipe Melo’s Galatasaray could only manage a 1-1 draw against Romanian champions CFR Cluj.
