Hamburg — Chelsea maintained their winning run in this season’s Champions League with a 1-0 win over defending champions Barcelona in a Group A match at Stamford Bridge.
Ivory Coast striker Didier Drogba scored the only goal of the game Wednesday for the English champions early in the second half, firing home an unstoppable shot from the edge of the area.
The result moves the Londoners on to nine points from three games with Barca second on four points, level with Werder Bremen who beat Levski Sofia 2-0.
Ronaldo Naldo opened the scoring for Bremen just before the break, thanks to a deflected free kick and Diego made it 2-0 with 17 minutes remaining.
Bayern Munich are also on nine points in Group B after a 1-0 win away to Sporting Lisbon.
Bastian Schweinsteiger had a mixed evening, putting the visitors in front on 19 minutes before being sent off for a second bookable offence one minute after the breather.
In the other match in Group B, Inter Milan collected their first points of the campaign with a 2-1 win over Spartak Moscow. Julio Ricardo Cruz scored twice for the Serie A leaders in the first 10 minutes while Roman Pavlyuchenko pulled one back for Spartak.
Liverpool may be showing indifferent form in the English Premiership but a 1-0 win at Girondins Bordeaux thanks to a goal from Peter Crouch sees Rafael Benitez’s side top of Group C with seven points.
PSV Eindhoven are levelled with the Reds after a 2-1 win away to Turkish side Galatasaray. Sasa Ilic put the home side in front in the 19th minute but second half goals from Jan Kromkamp and Arouna Kone secured the win for the Dutch side.
In Group D, Valencia continue to lead the way with nine points after a comfortable 2-0 win at home to Shakhtar Donetsk thanks to two goals from David Villa.
The Ukrainians finished the match with 10 men after Viacheslav Sviderskiy was sent off for a second bookable offence 15 minutes from time.
Roma lie second on six points after a 1-0 win away over Olympiakos Piraeus, with Simone Perrotta scoring the winner in the 76th minute.