Champions' League, day 1

A win at last for Spanish sides on the second day of the opening Champions League ties, Barcelona beating Werder Bremen 0-2 away from home with a first half strike from Deco and a second half penalty from Ronaldinho. Villarreal put up a good display as well, but could only draw 0-0 with a Manchester United side who ended with ten men after Rooney got himself sent off for a brain dead insult at referee Kim Nielsen. It was at least an improvement on the day before, when Real Madrid and Betis both lost their first games to Lyon and Liverpool respectively. (14.09.05)

Werder Bremen 0 - Barcelona 2

A win at last for Spanish sides on the second day of the opening Champions League ties, Barcelona beating Werder Bremen 0-2 away from home in their opening match. Deco put the Catalan side ahead in the thirteenth minute, his shot taking a deflection off a defender to wrong foot the keeper. but the German side came close to equalising before the break, firstly when Valdéz somehow missed the target with the goal at his mercy, and then when Micoud's shot came back off the post. Deco also hit the post early in the second half, but Valdés was again called on a couple of times before Ronaldinho wrapped things up from the penalty spot after young substitute Messi had been tripped by Schulz. (14.09.05)

Villarreal 0 - Manchester United 0

A good debut for Villarreal in the Champions League, although in the end they could only share the points in a 0-0 draw with Manchester United. Arruabarrena brought the best save of the first half out of Van der Sar, but thespaniards could have been behind at the break had Gonzalo Rodríguez not somehow hooking the ball off the line in front of Van Nistelrooy. Both sides had chances after the restart, but United were left with ten men when Rooney stupidly got himself sent off for applauding in the face of referee Kim Nielsen, and Marcos Senna almost won it in the dying minutes when his long shot was headed back by Ferdinand on to his own crossbar. (14.09.05)

Olympique Lyon 3 - Real Madrid 0

Real Madrid fell to their second defeat in four days, Gerard Houllier's Olympique Lyon catching them out with three goals in a ten minute period in the first half. Juninho was the man who did the damage, his free kick in the twentieth minute being headed past Casillas by John Carew, and then another free kick five minutes later finding a gap in a badly organized defensive wall. Wiltord added a third on the half hour mark after a good team move, and it could well have been four had Casillas not stopped a Juninho penalty after Salgado tripped the Brazilian midfielder shortly before half time. Lyon closed the door after that, and Madrid never really looked as if they were going to get back in the game. (13.09.05)

Betis 1 - Liverpool 2

A capacity crowd turned up to watch Betis begin their first ever Champions League campaign against reigning title holders Liverpool, but they went home disappointed after the English side ran out 1-2 winners. With the game only just over a minute old Sinama-Pongolle picked up a long ball out of midfield and caught Doblas off his line with a clever lob. And on the quarter hour mark the visitors went two up when Crouch and Zenden combined to set up Luis García. Serra Ferrer brought on forwards Dani and Xisco for the second half, and Dani threaded the ball through to Arzu for him to pull one back soon after the restart. But Reina and his defence stood firm after that to take the three points. (13.09.05)