Thaindian News

London, Oct 20 (IANS) Europe’s champion club Barcelona of Spain, English Premier League clubs Chelsea and Arsenal and Italy’s AC Milan all collected full points from their Champions League games Wednesday.

Barcelona and AC Milan stayed atop of Group H. Spanish champions beat the Czech side Victoria Pizen 2-0 with goals from Andres Iniesta, returning after a hamstring injury, and David Villa while the Italian champions defeated BATE Borisov of Belarus by an identical score as Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Kevin Prince Boateng scored.

Chelsea swamped Genk 5-0 at Stamford Bridge as Spanish striker Fernando Torres scoring his first goals in the competition for the club. He struck twice as the Blues sit pretty at the top of Group E — three points clear of second placed Bayer Leverkusen. Raul Meirelesalso, Branislav Ivanovic and substitute Salomon Kalou scored the other goals.

In the other game in Group E, Bayer Leverkusen saw off Valencia 2-1. Jonas Goncalves Oliveir put Valencia up before they were shocked by goals from Andre Schuerrle and Sidney Sam.

Arsenal made it clean run for the English clubs in the Champions League this week, all four Premier League clubs winning their games, but they laboured till the last second to get the only goal of the match to beat French club Marseille 1-0. Substitute Aaron Ramsey scored to take the Gunners to the top of Group F.

In the same group, Olympiakos surprised German champions Borussia Dortmund 3-1, but the Greeks still stay four points behind Arsenal in third position.

In Group G, Apoel Nicosia maintained their top position after a 1-1 draw with Porto. Zenit St Petersburg trail are one point behind them as they, too, played out a 2-2 draw with Shakhtar Donetsk who still have no points.

Results:
Group E: Bayer Leverkusen, Germany, beat Valencia, Spain, 2-1 at at Leverkusen; Chelsea, England, beat Genk, Belgium, 5-0, in London.

Group F: Arsenal, England, beat Marseille, France, 1-0 at Marseille; Olympiakos, Greece, beat Borussia Dortmund, Germany, 3-1, at Piraeus, Greece.

Group G: Shakhtar Donetsk, Ukraine, drew with Zenit St Petersburg, Russia, 2-2, Donetsk; Porto, Portugal, drew with APOEL Nicosia, Cyprus, 1-1, at Oporto.

Group H: Barcelona, Spain, beat Viktoria Plzen, Cezch Republic, 2-0, at Barcelona; AC Milan, Italy, beat BATE Borisov, Belarus, 2-0 at Milan.