/ 4 October 2007

Liverpool upset in Champions League

AC Milan and Liverpool were upset in the Champions League on Wednesday, and Chelsea won 2-1 at Valencia with a late goal from Didier Drogba.

Defending champion Milan lost at Celtic 2-1 after a 90th-minute goal from Scott McDonald.

After the goal, a fan ran onto the field and made contact with Milan goalkeeper Dida. The Brazilian turned to chase the fan, but then fell to the ground and was taken off on a stretcher, clutching the right side of his face with an ice pack.

Liverpool lost to Marseille 1-0 at Anfield after a 77th-minute goal from Mathieu Valbuena.

Also on Wednesday, Goran Pandev scored twice to earn Lazio a 2-2 draw with Real Madrid, FC Porto beat Besiktas 1-0, Schalke defeated Rosenborg 2-0, Olympiakos rallied to win 3-1 at Werder Bremen and Shakhtar Donetsk won at Benfica 1-0.

Chelsea’s win was a relief for Chelsea coach Avram Grant, who has faced skepticism from fans and the British media since he took charge.

Jose Mourinho left as Blues manager a day after the 1-1 draw with Rosenborg on September 18.

David Villa gave Valencia the lead after spinning around defender John Terry and beating goalkeeper Petr Cech to the loose ball in the ninth. Joe Cole, who also helped set up the winning goal, scored in the 21st.

In the 71st, Cole’s pass found Drogba, who ran on to beat goalkeeper Timo Hildebrand.

Terry played wearing a clear plastic mask over his face to protect a cheekbone fracture.

Schalke beat Rosenborg 2-0 with second-half goals from Jermaine Jones and Kevin Kuranyi. Chelsea leads Group B with four points, with Valencia and Schalke with three and Rosenborg with one.

Celtic won when McDonald tapped in a rebound after Gary Caldwell’s shot was pushed away by Dida.

”It’s been a good night,” Celtic manager Gordon Strachan said. ”Our footballers won the game for us … That gave us the platform to go on and win the game.”

Stephan McManus had given Celtic the lead in the 62nd minute at Celtic Park, chesting a swinging corner kick, but Kaka equalised in the 68th from the penalty spot. Zeljko Kalac replaced Dida for the remaining minutes of injury time.

”I don’t think it’s serious,” Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti said. ”We played a good game on a tough field that didn’t allow us to play.”

In the other Group D game, Shakhtar Donetsk won with a 42nd-minute goal from Jadson, who scored unmarked from close range. That gave the Ukraine team a perfect record with six points. Milan and Celtic both have three points, while Benfica has zero.

Marseille became the first French team to win at Anfield, giving new coach Erik Gerets a perfect start at the club.

Mohamed Sissoko lost possession for the Reds, allowing Valbuena to score from the edge of the penalty area. Goalkeeper Pepe Reina could do little to stop the ball from dropping into the net off the inside of the crossbar.

It was Gerets’ first game in charge after he replaced Albert Emon, who was fired despite beating Besiktas 2-0 in the team’s European opener.

”This was a game we expected to lose, but we felt if we took the initiative and decided to attack it would be a great tactic to take,” Gerets said. ”We tried to get men forward and that gave us this victory.”

Liverpool, which lost last season’s final to AC Milan, drew its first Group A match 1-1 at FC Porto. The Portuguese side beat Besiktas 1-0 with an injury-time goal from Ricardo Quaresma.

Marseille has six points, while Porto has four, Liverpool has one and Besiktas has zero.

Lazio held nine-time champion Real Madrid to a 2-2 draw in its first Champions League game at home in four years.

Pandev scored with a volley in the 32nd and added the equaliser in the 75th.

”The guys had a lot of pride. They were nervous, facing Real Madrid in front of a full stadium. We did what we tried to do,” Lazio coach Delio Rossi said. ”We played evenly with a team that is technically superior.”

Ruud van Nistelrooy scored twice for Real Madrid. The Dutchman scored from close range to give Madrid the lead in the eighth minute and then again in the 61st.

The goals take his tally in the Champions League to 56 goals — one behind leader and teammate Raul Gonzalez.

Ieroklis Stoltidis, Christos Patsatzoglou and Darko Kovacevic scored for Olympiakos in its 3-1 win. Werder Bremen had taken the lead in the 32nd through Hugo Almedia.

Madrid and Olympiakos have four points in Group C, followed by Lazio with two and Bremen with zero.

On Tuesday, it was: Manchester United 1, AS Roma 0; Steaua Bucharest 0, Arsenal 1; Lyon 0, Rangers 3; Stuttgart 0, FC Barcelona 2; Dynamo Kiev 1, Sporting 2; Inter Milan 2, PSV Eindhoven 0; CSKA Moscow 2, Fenerbahce 2; and Sevilla 4, Slavia Prague 2. – Sapa-AP