Five up inside 50 minutes, Barcelona looked every bit Champions League contenders with a 5-0 thrashing of Basle in Switzerland on Wednesday. Barca were at their brilliant best and first-half goals from Lionel Messi, Sergio Busquets and Bojan Krkic gave them the half-time lead, but Basle were lucky it was only three. Barcelona scored two goals in the first three minutes of the second half through Bojan again and Xavi to complete the rout.
In the other game in Group C, Sporting went second with a narrow 1-0 win away in Ukraine against the run of play. Liedson hit the winner in the 76th minute after Derlei had back-heeled into his path from a Fabio Rochemback free-kick.
In Group A Chelsea moved three points clear at the top after John Terry’s goal earned them a 1-0 home win over Roma. The Chelsea captain glanced home Frank Lampard’s corner on 78 minutes to give Luiz Felipe Scolari’s men a deserved three points and break a stubborn Roman resistance. Chelsea can secure qualification to the knock-out stages if they beat Roma in Italy on November 4. In the other match in Group A, Bordeaux ended the unbeaten Champions League run of surprise package CFR Cluj with a 1-0 home win over the Romanian side.
Simao, a former Liverpool target, scored a late equalizer as Atletico Madrid held Liverpool to a 1-1 draw in their Champions League Group D clash at the Vicente Calderon. Robbie Keane had scored earlier to give Liverpool the lead, bit Simao’s goal means that both teams stay top of the group on 7 points. More troubling for Liverpool was the sight of Robbie Keane, Steven Gerrard and Xavi Alonso all going off injured. With a top of the table clash with Chelsea coming up this weekend, Liverpool fans will be playing close attention to their fitness progress.
Danny Koevermans struck twice after the break to earn PSV Eindhoven a 2-0 home victory over Marseille in the other Champions League Group D match. The win gave PSV their first points of the campaign after Stijn Wuytens had gone close in the first half.
Brazilian Adriano headed in just before half-time to give a pedestrian Internazionale a 1-0 win over Anorthosis Famagusta and send the Italians clear at the top of Champions League Group B. Inter lead the group with seven points from three games with Anorthosis on four. In the other game in this group a late goal from Portuguese striker Hugo Almeida secured Werder Bremen a 2-2 draw against Panathinaikos at the Olympic Stadium in Athens.
