Any lingering disappointment from Chelsea’s weekend 1-1 draw with city rivals Tottenham Hotspur was quickly dispelled on Tuesday night, with the London club cruising to a 4-0 Uefa Champions League victory away to Steaua Bucharest.
Ramires found the net twice for the visitors, linking well with Andre Schurrle. An emphatic own-goal by Steaua’s Daniel Georgievski and a late Frank Lampard strike rounded out the scoring.
Chelsea assumed second place in Group E with three points, although Basel remain second on a better head-to-head record. Schalke lead the group with six points following a 1-0 victory over the Swiss side. Julian Draxler grabbed the winner for the Germans.
Group H provided late drama and controversy. Ajax appeared on course for a precious home win over AC Milan after Stefano Denswil scored for the Dutch side in the 90th minute. Mario Balotelli drew a penalty in the fourth minute of added time, however, and converted the resulting spot kick to salvage a point for Milan.
In Glasgow, Scottish champions Celtic put up a stout rearguard action against Barcelona but ultimately fell short 1-0. The match turned when Celtic captain Scott Brown was sent off for kicking at Neymar, leaving the hosts down a man for the final half-hour. A looping header in the 75th minute from Cesc Fabregas provided the winning margin. Fraser Forster pulled off three eye-popping saves in the final minutes to keep alive Celtic’s hopes of a late comeback.
Borussia Dortmund picked up their first win in Group F, beating Marseille 3-0 thanks to two goals from Robert Lewandowski and one from Marco Reus. Dortmund and Napoli each have three points, three behind group leaders Arsenal.
Second-half goals by Diego Godin and Arda Turan sealed a 2-1 win for Atletico Madrid away to Porto, who took a first-half lead through Jackson Martinez. Zenit St Petersburg and Austria Vienna drew 0-0 in Russia, each collecting their first points of the competition.
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