The last pass has been made in the first round of groupmatches of the Champions League and there is much to celebrate for teams whowon and the odd team that did well in defeat. With less than three minutes togo for the final whistle fans of Manchester City may have had dreams ofsavoring a draw at the Bernabeu but instead of beginning with a famous victory,Roberto Mancini's men were left to rue what might have been.
Karim Benzema's equaliser was quickly followed by CristianoRonaldo's dramatic last-gasp winner, leading to a sliding celebration from Realboss Jose Mourinho. 3-2 it ended. City shall, it is hoped live and learn.Arsenal on the other hand belied expectations and won rather unconvincingly againstMontpellier 2-1. For defending champions Chelsea, it was a lesson they willnever forget soon. Juventus came back from two goals down to snatch a draw.Brazilian summer signing Oscar was Chelsea's inspiration with two swiftfirst-half goals, the second a spectacular long-range effort that left Juventuskeeper Gianluigi Buffon helpless. But Arturo Vidal's goal put them back incontention before half-time and substitute Fabio Quagliarella ensured thepoints were shared with an equaliser nine minutes from time. For the otherEnglish team, Manchester United, they survived a scare from Galatasaray to win 1-0thanks to Michael Carrick's early goal. The Turkish side was denied a clearpenalty when Nemanja Vidic fouled Umut Bulup in the first few minutes of thematch. Over at the Camp Nou, Messi rescued Barcelona by scoring two goals tobeat Spartak Moscow3-2. Bayern Munich showed no hangover from losing lastyear's Champions League final to Chelsea as they won a fifth game on the trotwith a 2-1 victory over Valencia. All in all a bit of a mixed bag, the returnlegs should be interesting.
