Chelsea win, Arsenal held
Chelsea's annual pursuit of Champions League, the continent's biggest club prize that has so far eluded them began in encouraging fashion for the latest coach in the hot seat as Andre Villas-Boas's team beat Bayer Leverkusen 2-0 in Group E.
The other Anglo-German tussle among the eight matches in Groups E-H ended in a 1-1 draw between Bundesliga champions Borussia Dortmund and Arsenal in northern Germany.
While Chelsea and Arsenal still Photo: Reutersseek a first Champions League crown, former European champions Porto and Olympique Marseille began with victories.
Porto beat Shakhtar Donetsk 2-1 in Group G although they were helped by their Ukrainian opponents having two players sent off -- Yaroslav Rakitskiy for a straight red card in the 40th minute for a poor tackle and Dmytro Chygrynskiy for a second booking late on.
In Group F, French side Marseille edged out Olympiakos Piraeus 1-0 in Greece.
Newcomers Viktoria Plzen got their first point on the board with a 1-1 draw at home to BATE Borisov of Belarus although with Barcelona and Milan waiting in Group H life is about to get much tougher for the Czechs.
Chelsea welcomed back Michael Ballack to Stamford Bridge but it was not to be a happy return for the German midfielder as goals by Brazil defender David Luiz and Spain forward Juan Mata gave Villas-Boas the perfect start to the campaign.
Both goals were set up by Spain striker Fernando Torres, recalled to the side after being left out of Chelsea's Premier League victory at the weekend because of poor form.
"He took the right decision," Villas-Boas told the club's website when describing Torres's unselfish decision to pass to Mata rather than try to double his meagre tally of one goal since arriving for a British record fee of 50 million pounds from Liverpool in January.
"We had players there with the goal in front and he took a wise decision so we're very happy for that."
Arsenal looked on course for a notable win at Borussia Dortmund thanks to Robin van Persie's clinical finish just before halftime but a stunning 88th-minute volley by Ivan Perisic denied the Gunners whose manager Arsene Wenger had to watch the match from the stands because of a touchline ban.
Cypriots Apoel Nicosia were up against Russian opposition for the first time and marked the occasion with a 2-1 defeat of visitors Zenit St Petersburg -- a result greeted with euphoria by the 18,000 home fans who celebrated their team's first victory in the group stages of the Champions League.
Two goals in three minutes by Gustavo Manduca and Ailton turned the match around after Konstantin Zyryanov fired Zenit ahead against the run of play in the 63rd minute.
Zenit's Bruno Alves was sent off in the 76th minute.
RESULTS
Group E
At London
Chelsea (ENG) 2 (Luiz 66, Mata 90+2) Bayer Leverkusen (GER) 0
At Genk, Belgium
Genk (BEL) 0 Valencia (ESP) 0
Group F
At Athens
Olympiakos (GRE) 0 Marseille
(FRA) 1 (Lucho 50)
At Dortmund, Germany
Borussia Dortmund (GER) 1 (Perisic 88) Arsenal (ENG) 1 (Van Persie 42)
Group G
At Oporto, Portugal
Porto (POR) 2 (Hulk 28, Kleber 51) Shakthar Donetsk (UKR) 1
(Luiz Adriano 12)
At Nicosia
Apoel Nicosia (CYP) 2 (Manduca 73, Ailton 75) Zenit St-Petersburg (RUS) 1 (Zyryanov 63)
Group H
At Barcelona, Spain
Barcelona (ESP) 2 (Pedro 35, Villa 49) AC Milan (ITA) 2 (Pato 1, Silva 90+2)
At Pilsen, Czech Republic
Plzen (CZE) 1 (Bakos 45+1) Bate Borisov (BLR) 1 (Bressan 69)
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