Losses dim hopes for Arsenal, Chelsea
MOSCOW Jose Mourinho’s season took another turn for the worse on a night of surprises in the Champions League.
With Chelsea floundering in 14th in the English Premier League, a win at Porto on Tuesday would have been a much-needed boost, but instead Mourinho, the club’s manager, watched a 2-1 defeat at the hands of the club he led to the Champions League title in 2004.
Mourinho said his team paid the price for “two ridiculous mistakes” in defence as Yacine Brahimi and Maicon’s goals powered the Portuguese team to victory.
Arsenal fared no better than its London rival, losing 3-2 at home to Olympiakos. That leaves Arsenal at the bottom of Group F with rapidly shrinking hopes of qualifying for the knockout stages. Another surprise was in store in Belarus, where BATE Borisov upset Roma 3-2.
However, Barcelona pulled off a dramatic escape to avoid defeat against Bayer Leverkusen, scoring in the 80th and 82nd minutes to turn defeat into a 2-1 home victory.
“We are the European champions and we knew that in the second half we had to show it,” said Luis Suarez, who scored the winner.
Barcelona’s dramatic comeback was achieved without Lionel Messi, who is set to miss two months with a torn knee ligament, and the team’s injury worries grew when Andres Iniesta was forced off in the second half with an apparent thigh injury.
Sergi Roberto poked in the rebound of a strike by fellow substitute Munir El Haddadi to equalize in the 80th, and two minutes later El Haddadi passed for Luis Suarez to drive in the winner, sending Barcelona top of Group E.
Leverkusen outplayed the defending champions for an hour. Defender Kyriakos Papadopoulos scored the opener in the 22nd, but Leverkusen didn’t have the legs to keep up with Barcelona’s reinforcements.
In Group F, a goalkeeping blunder by David Ospina helped Olympiakos beat Arsenal 3-2, leaving the Gunners in real danger of its first group-stage exit in 16 years.
Ospina fumbled a corner over his line to give the visitors a 2-1 first-half lead, and substitute Alfred Finnbogason scored the winner in the 66th minute — almost immediately after Alexis Sanchez had tied it 2-2 for Arsenal.
Arsenal has now lost both its opening games — and still has two meetings with Group F leader Bayern Munich to come. Bayern beat Dinamo Zagreb 5-0 to take a tight grip on first place in the group.
In Group G, Dynamo Kyiv cruised to a 2-0 win over Maccabi Tel Aviv in Israel.
In Group H, Hulk delivered a man-of-the-match performance as Zenit St. Petersburg made it two wins from two matches with a 2-1 defeat of Gent. Valencia got its campaign back on track with a 1-0 win at Lyon following an opening home loss to Zenit.