As expected, Barcelona beat Champions League debutants Viktoria Plsen on Wednesday night, although they had more problems than expected before running out 2-0 winners. Iniesta combined with Messi to score another breathtaking goal in the tenth minute, but although Messi in particular could have scored a hatful after that, the second goal didn't come until eight minutes from the end when Villa finished off after Messi was upended in the box. Barça and AC Milan are joint leaders with seven points each. Valencia though suffered the same fate as Villarreal, Jonas giving them a first half lead at Bayer Leverkusen, but two goals in three minutes from Schürrle and Sam early in the second half making it 2-1 in the end. At the midway point of the group stage Valencia only have two points, and they need to beat Leverkusen in two weeks time to have any chance of progressing to the next round. (19.10.11)
Real Madrid are all but sure of a place in the knock out stage after a 4-0 victory over Olympique Lyon on Tuesday. Benzema opened the scoring midway through the first half and then set up Khedira for a second two minutes after the restart, and Lloris turned Özil's wide shot in to his own net before Sergio Ramos rounded things off. Madrid have won their first three games, but Villarreal have lost all of theirs after the cruellest of defeats at Manchester City. Cani gave Garrido's side an early lead, but Marchena turned Kolarov's cross in to his own net just before the break, and Kun Agüero made it 2-1 for the Premier League team with just five seconds left on the clock. (18.10.11)