UCL: Arsenal, Chelsea lose; Lewa hat trick
Chelsea and Arsenal both fell to surprise defeats in the Champions League on Tuesday while Luis Suarez rallied Barcelona to a win, and Robert Lewandowski kept up his impressive run of form with another hat trick as Bayern Munich cruised to a win.
Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea fell to his former club Porto 2-1 in Group G.
Asmir Begovic could only palm Yacine Brahimi’s powerful shot into the path of Andre Andre, who lashed home before the keeper could recover.
Willian equalised with the last kick of the first half on a free kick that left Iker Casillas, making his record-breaking 152nd Champions League appearance, rooted to the spot.
Maicon put Porto back in front seven minutes after the breaking by heading in Ruben Neves’ corner, and Diego Costa’s chance to equalise moments later came off the bar.
Arsenal fell to a 3-2 defeat to Olympiakos in Group F that left Gunners fans longing to see Petr Cech in goal after David Ospina was at fault on an own goal.
Felipe Pardo put the visitors ahead with a defelected shot from the top of the box in the 33rd minute, but the Greek side led for less than two minutes as Arsenal struck back through Theo Walcott.
Alexis Sanchez raced down the wing before finding Walcott, whose low shot skipped over goalkeeper Roberto Gago.
Ospina’s howler came in the 40th minute when he carried Konstantinos Fortounis’ cross over the goal line.
Walcott then turned provider for Sanchez, delivering a cross for the Chilean to equalise with a header. But joy at the Emirates was short-lived as Alfred Finnbogason put Olympiakos back in front by beating Ospina inside a minute.
Lewandowski’s hat trick helped Bayern Munich demolish Dinamo Zagreb 5-0 to take control of Group F.
Douglas Costa’s low shot from a tight angle beat Dinamo keeper Eduardo at the near post in the 13th minute.
Robert Lewandowski doubled the advantage eight minutes later after Dinamo defender Filip Benkovic stumbled while attempting to play the ball in his own half, and Thiago Alcantara pounced on the loose ball and fed the striker.
Mario Gotze made it three in the 25th minute after playing a one-two with Kingsley Coman, though Eduardo made a mess of a shot he should have easily saved.
Lewandowski made it 4-0 three minutes later following a corner kick by slamming the ball off the underside of the bar and barely across the line.
He completed his hat trick 10 minutes into the second half by chipping the goalkeeper after being played onside.
Playing without the injured Messi, Barcelona struggled to break down Bayer Leverkusen but eventually rallied to win 2-1.
Kyriakos Papadopoulos gave Leverkusen a shock 22nd-minute by heading home Hakan Calhanoglu’s corner kick very close to Marc-Andre ter Stegen’s goal line.
Neymar came the closest to equalising in the first half when his deflected off the post and Sandro’s follow-up was blocked.
Javier Hernandez missed a clear shot to put Leverkusen two goals up when he was left unmarked early in the second half but his shot from 10 yards went well over the bar, and the Mexico international was substituted shortly afterward.
But Sergi Roberto finally levelled the score in the 80th minute on a rebound before Luis Suarez scored the winner two minutes later.
Also in Group E, BATE Borisov surprised Roma by scoring three goals inside a half hour in a 3-2 win in Belarus.
Igor Stasevich found the opener in the eighth minute before two goals by Filip Mladenovic — the first coming from well over 30 yards out.
Roma tried to claw back in the second half with goals by Gervinho and Vasilios Torosidis, but they ultimately could not find the tying goal.
In Group H, Sofiane Feghouli scored three minutes before the break to give Valencia a 1-0 win at Lyon.
The Primera Division side had lost their opener to Zenit but Feghouli’s goal moved them into second place behind the Russians.
Lyon, meanwhile, are still without a win in this season’s competition and have just a single point from their opening two games.
Oleg Shatov’s second-half goal earned Zenit St Petersburg a 2-1 victory over Gent to strengthen their position at the top of Group H.
Zenit began strongly in front of their home fans, but had to wait until the 35th minute to take the lead through Artem Dzyuba’s close-range header.
Thomas Matton’s fine 56th-minute volley drew Gent level before Shatov’s cool finish 11 minutes later sealed all three points for the hosts.
In the other game Chelsea’s Group G, Dynamo Kiev eased to a 2-0 win away to Maccabi Tel-Aviv, Andriy Yarmolenko and Junior Moraes scoring either side of half-time.
Yarmolenko struck with just three minutes played and Junior Moraes found the net shortly after half-time to make it four points from two games for Dynamo.
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