Chelsea’s poor start to the season continued as they were beaten by Porto in the Champions League today.
Andre Andre gave Porto the lead, volleying in after Asmir Begovic pushed away Yacine Brahimi’s effort. Midfielder Willian equalised on the stroke of half-time with a superb free-kick from the edge of the area.
Porto’s Andre Andre celebrates after scoring against Chelsea.
Maicon put the home side ahead again with a flicked header at the front post, before Diego Costa rattled the bar with a curling shot. Chelsea’s Cesc Fabregas and Pedro both forced Spain team-mate Iker Casillas –– making a record 152nd appearance in the competition –– into saves early on.
But despite their early pressure, and a late penalty claim for a handball by Ivan Marcano, they came away from the Estadio do Dragao with nothing.
Meanwhile Arsenal’s hopes of Champions League progress are in serious jeopardy after they slumped to their second successive group stage loss at home to Olympiakos.
Arsene Wenger’s side knew nothing other than victory would do after defeat by Dinamo Zagreb in Croatia in their opening game –– and with two meetings with group favourites Bayern Munich still to come.
Instead it was a dreadful night for Arsenal, who must now become the first team since Galatasaray in 2012-13 to lose their first two group games and still reach the knockout stage.
The Gunners’ display was summed up by the wretched first-half own goal conceded by David Ospina – preferred to Petr Cech in goal –– when he dropped Kostas Fortounis’s corner into his own net after Theo Walcott equalised Felipe Pardo’s deflected shot.
Alexis Sanchez gave Arsenal hope with a 65th-minute header only for Alfred Finnbogason to restore Olympiakos’s lead within a minute.
In more action Luis Suarez got the winner as Barcelona scored two goals in two minutes to come from behind and beat Bayer Leverkusen 2-1.
Kyriakos Papadopoulos had headed the visitors into a deserved half-time lead as Barca struggled to find fluidity without the injured Lionel Messi.
But Sergi Roberto turned in a rebound with just 10 minutes left before former Liverpool striker Suarez smashed home. The victory sees Luis Enrique’s side leapfrog their German opponents to go top of Group E.
Robert Lewandowski took his recent run to 10 goals in three matches with a hat-trick as Bayern Munich beat Dinamo Zagreb 5-0.
Douglas Costa scored first, Mario Gotze got the third and Lewandowski’s second put Bayern 4-0 up after 28 minutes.
Lewandowski scored five in the 5-1 victory over Wolfsburg on Wednesday, and two in Saturday’s 3-0 win at Mainz. The victory sees Bayern go three points clear at the top of Group F, with their next two matches against Arsenal.
Elsewhere in Group E, Belarus champions BATE Borisov shocked injury-hit Roma with an entertaining 3-2 home win.
BATE went 3-0 up in the first 30 minutes through Ihar Stasevich and two from Filip Mladenovic. The Serie A club then hit back after the break and reduced the deficit with strikes from Gervinho, on 66 minutes, and Vasilis Torisidis eight minutes from time.
Roma’s Alessandro Florenzi also hit the crossbar late on but BATE held out to move on to three points in Group E. Roma are bottom of the section with one.
Lyon’s chances of reaching the knockout phase already look in jeopardy after they slumped to a 1-0 home defeat by Valencia.
Lyon are bottom of Group H after Sofiane Feghouli gave Valencia victory against the run of play.
Elsewhere, Oleg Shatov’s winner and a fine performance from Hulk helped Zenit St Petersburg move to the top of the Group after a 2-1 win against Gent.
Artem Dzyuba gave the hosts the lead after 35 minutes when Hulk’s cross was met by a towering header from the Russian international that beat keeper Matz Sels.
The Belgian side drew level 10 minutes into the second half with a Thomas Matton volley but Hulk laid on the winner for Shatov on 67 minutes.
In Chelsea’s group, goals from Andriy Yarmolenko and Aluisio Junior Moraes gave Dynamo Kiev a 2-0 victory over Maccabi Tel-Aviv.