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| Alex Oxlade Chamberlain |
Arsenal and Chelsea had a Champions League night was
disappointed on on Tuesday as a Robert Lewandowski hat-trick helped Bayern
Munich crush Dinamo Zagreb.
Champions Barcelona, missing injured icon Lionel Messi,
followed up their opening Group E draw at Roma with a stirring come-from-behind
2-1 win at Bayer Leverkusen.
The Germans appeared to have the three points in the bag
after Kyriakos Papadopoulos's header before the break.
But Luis Suarez turned the game around in the final 10
minutes as Sergi Roberto tapped home the rebound after the Uruguayan's initial
effort had been saved.
And the former Liverpool striker thumped home a stunning
effort to hand Barca a hard-fought three points, two minutes later.
With Roma sent on their way 3-2 by BATE Borisov it left
Barca shading Group E.
Jose Mourinho's return to Porto, the team who the Portuguese
guided to the 2004 title, proved an unhappy affair.
Andre Andre's opener for Porto late in the first half was
quickly cancelled out by a superb Willian free-kick, but Maicon's 52nd-minute
header proved to be the difference in this Group G clash played at a
rip-roaring pace.
Dynamo Kiev, 2-0 winners over Maccabi Tel Aviv, top the
table on goal difference with Chelsea in third.
Arguably the most stunning result of the evening emerged
from the Emirates Stadium, where Greek champions Olympiakos shocked Arsenal 3-2
to leave the Gunners stone last in Group F.
The Greeks, ending a 12-match losing run in England, left
Arsenal and their coach Arsene Wenger ashen-faced, and the team's fans jeering
at the final whistle.
After falling behind to Felipe Pardo's deflected opener,
Arsenal equalised through Theo Walcott.
But then a horrendous mistake from goalkeeper David Ospina,
selected over regular first choice Petr Cech, allowed a Kostas Fortounis corner
to slip through his grasp for an embarrassing own goal.
Alexis Sanchez dragged Arsenal back into it with a second
half equaliser, but incredibly the north Londoners imploded again with more
slack defending gifting Iceland striker Alfred Finnbogason the winner.
Beaten in the group curtain raiser in Zagreb, Arsenal are
now up against it to extricate themselves from the pool stages.
To compound their plight free-shooting Bayern Munich await,
the German giants flexing their muscles in Zagreb.
Bayern top the table, Pep Guardiola's side cruising towards
the knockout stage after Lewandowski's treble, and goals from Douglas Costa and
Mario Goetze steamrollered Dinamo Zagreb 5-0.
"We played in a very concentrated fashion from the
start and when you take your goal chances, the game was over after 30
minutes," said Bayern captain Philipp Lahm.
Poland hot-shot Lewandowski has now scored 10 goals in his
last three games after netting five in just nine spectacular minutes of
Bayern's 5-1 hammering of Wolfsburg last Tuesday before claiming two more in
Saturday's 3-0 win at Mainz.
"He's had an unbelievable week behind him,"
admitted Lahm.
Elsewhere, Zenit St Petersburg remained unbeaten with a 2-1
home win over Belgian outfit Gent to top Group H from Valencia, 1-0 winners at
Lyon.
Wednesday's menu features the two Manchester clubs, United
and City, against Vfl Wolfsburg and Borussia Moenchengladbach, while Real
Madrid are in Malmo and Paris Saint-Germain have a tricky assignment away to
Shakhtar Donetsk.
Source.supersport.com
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