European Champions League Group Play Opens

And so the group stage is underway. For the most part, the home teams held serve – eight games on Tuesday, and just one visiting team managed to score. And there was nary an upset (unless you count Lyon dumping Real Madrid – again). It was a great week for English clubs, as Arsenal, Man U, and Chelsea all won, and Liverpool got a draw on the road. Two weeks now, until Game Day 2.

Group A
Barcelona and Chelsea took early control with a pair of dominating home shutouts. Barca got scores from five different players.
Barcelona 5, Levski Sofia 0
Chelsea 2, Werder Bremen 0

Group B
A good day for the home teams here as well; Bayern cruising, Sporting Lisbon hanging onto a slim win over Inter Milan, who had Patrick Vieira red carded.
Bayern Munich 4, Spartak Moscow 0
Sporting Lisbon 1, Inter Milan 0

Group C
A pair of scoreless draws is probably good news for the visitors, who were likely the favorites in this group already.
Galatasaray 0, Bordeaux 0
PSV Eindhoven 0, Liverpool 0

Group D
Valencia came from behind, and got two goals in the final five minutes to take a road win in Greece; Fernando Morientes tallied a hat trick. Roma left it late as well, getting four goals in the last 23 minutes to bury a pretty good Ukranian side.
Olympiakos 2, Valencia 4
Roma 4, Shakhtar Donetsk 0

Group E
Tough week for the Ukraine, whose teams had been on a roll. And what about Real Madrid? Last year's Galacticos lost at Lyon 3-0; this year's new, improved, Fabio Capello-led non-Galacticos were just a goal better.
Dynamo Kiev 1, Steaua Bucharest 4
Lyon 2, Real Madrid 0

Group F
The much anticipated all-British matchup lived up to its billing, with end-to-end play, and five goals in the first half. Man U's Sir Alex Ferguson promised his lads wouldn't fail again this year, and so far, so good.
Manchester United 3, Glasgow Celtic 2
FC Copenhagen 0, Benfica 0

Group G
Arsenal got a valuable win on the road, but didn't necessarily look all that convincing doing it. Hamburg played a man down almost the entire game, after having their goalkeeper sent off while conceding a penalty in the 10th minute.
FC Porto 0, CSKA Moscow 0
Hamburg 1, Arsenal 2

Group H
Milan coasted; they look to be the class of this group. Second place looks wide open; give an edge to the French side.
AC Milan 3, AEK Athens 0
Anderlecht 1, Lille 1

Top two teams in each group advance to the final 16 knockout round.
Match Day 2 is Sept. 26-27