Barcelona and Arsenal picked up their first Champions League victories of the season while Marseille made it two wins out of two after thrashing Dortmund.
Winners of the competition in three of the last six seasons, Barcelona were held to a 2-2 draw by AC Milan on matchday one, but turned in a clinical performance to win 5-0 at BATE. Barca were three up by half-time thanks to an own goal from Aliaksandr Volodko and goals from Pedro Rodriguez and Messi. Messi added another goal in the second half, which moved him into joint-second place on Barcelona’s all-time goalscoring list.
Elsewhere in Group H, goals from Zlatan Ibrahimović and Antonio Cassano allowed AC MIlan to beat Viktoria Plzeň 2-0.
Marseille were emphatic winners in Group F against Borussia Dortmund, André Ayew contributing to a 3-0 success with a goal in either half. Didier Deschamps’ side may be struggling domestically, but are perfect in Europe.
Marseille are two points clear of Arsenal, who beat Olympiacos 2-1 at the Emirates. Not the best performance by Arsenal, but considering the injury crisis the Gunners have, a good result nevertheless.
The other English team in action tonight were Chelsea, who were denied a second straight win after Roberto Soldado’s 87th-minute penalty cancelled out Frank Lampard’s effort. In Group E’s other game, Bayer 04 Leverkusen beat 2-0 KRC Genk.
Zenit St Petersburg bounced back from their shock loss to APOEL by beating Porto 3-1, while last season’s quarter-finalists Shakhtar Donetsk were themselves frutstrated by the Cypriot side in a 1-1 draw.
