Lionel Messi announced his return to form with a well-taken goal last night as Barcelona came away from the San Siro with a 1-1 Champions League draw against AC Milan.
Messi had been out for much of the past three weeks with a thigh injury, but he showed little rust from his time on the sidelines. Robinho gave Milan the lead after nine minutes after taking advantage of a turnover deep in Barcelona territory and beating Victor Valdes from close range.
Barcelona lead Group H with seven points, two ahead of Milan. Celtic sit third with three points after beating Ajax 2-1 in a dramatic night at Parkhead.
Craig Forrest gave Celtic the lead with a penalty just before half time, and Baram Kayal doubled the lead on 54 minutes. There was a nervy finish in store, though, as Nir Biton was sent off in the 88th minute, 11 minutes after coming on, and Lasse Schone scored in stoppage time for Ajax.
Chelsea overhauled Schalke at the top of Group E, beating the German side 3-0 in Gelsenkirchen. Fernando Torres marked his 100th start for Chelsea in style by scoring twice, and Eden Hazard piled on more misery for Schalke with a late third. Steaua Bucharest and Basel drew 1-1 in Romania as Leandro Tatu’s late goal cancelled out an earlier strike by Basel’s Marcelo Diaz.
Atletico Madrid showed no ill effects after suffering their first loss in league play, winning 3-0 away to Austria Vienna behind two goals from Diego Costa and another from Raul Garcia. In the other Group G match, Porto nearly pulled off a heroic draw after losing Hector Herrera to a red card after just six minutes, but Alexander Kerzhakov scored five minutes from time to give visiting Zenit St Petersburg all three points.
In Group F, Jose Callejon and Daniel Zapata gave Napoli three precious points away from home with a 2-1 victory at Marseille. Andre Ayew pulled back a late goal for the French side, who sit bottom of the group with zero points.
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