United exposed in Germany, Chelsea lose

Champions League round-up

Champions League round-up

Bundesliga leaders VfB Stuttgart scored twice in quick succession early in the second half to beat Manchester United 2-1 in the Champions League tonight.

Striker Imre Szabics caught the visitors' defence off guard to open the scoring with a low drive from outside the box on 50 minutes and Germany forward Kevin Kuranyi beat the advancing Tim Howard by slotting the ball under the bar from the edge of the box to double the advantage two minutes later.

The visitors pulled one back with a 67th-minute penalty from striker Ruud van Nistelrooy, who made headlines with his third penalty miss of the season against Arsenal at Old Trafford 10 days ago but got it right this time.

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Howard then made sure Manchester United escaped further punishment with a superb save from a penalty by defender Fernando Meira with 10 minutes remaining.

Two goals in five first-half minutes from midfielder Sergen Yalcin gave 10-man Besiktas a shock 2-0 win away at Chelsea.

It was only Chelsea's second defeat in 41 European home games and threw Group G wide open with both sides on three points from their opening two games. Leaders Lazio have four points while Sparta Prague have one.

Besiktas weathered early pressure from the home side before taking the lead against the run of play on 24 minutes. A clever free kick allowed Ibrahim Uzulmez to cross from the left and Sergen forced home via a deflection off defender John Terry's arm.

Besiktas's second goal five minutes later came after two bad blunders in the Chelsea defence. A long goal kick from Oscar Cordoba was not dealt with by the stumbling Marcel Desailly under pressure from Sergen. Chelsea keeper Carlo Cudicini raced from his goal but missed the ball completely, allowing Sergen to fire home unchallenged.

The visitors were reduced to 10 men on 50 minutes when Turkey international striker Ilhan Mansiz, booked just before halftime for kicking the ball away after the whistle, was sent off after committing the same offence.

But Chelsea, despite the introduction after the break of Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Republic of Ireland star Damien Duff for Hernan Crespo and Adrian Mutu, failed to make their extra man count.

Panathinaikos fought back from a goal down to earn a 1-1 draw against Rangers in Greece.

Pantelis Konstantinidis struck from close range in the 87th minute to earn the Greek side their first point in the group.

Rangers had snatched the lead 10 minutes before the break when Portugal international Capucho slid the ball into the danger zone for Emerson to bundle it home.

Real Madrid overcame the loss of an early goal to beat Porto 3-1 and maintain their winning start in Group F.

Porto took the lead after only seven minutes when Costinha headed a rebound past Ilker Casillas.

But Real, despite being outplayed for most of the opening period, equalised against the run of play when Ivan Helguera headed home a cross from Solari after 28 minutes.

Real then showed the first flash of their attacking best when a sweeping move from one end of the field to the other ended with Solari, standing-in for Raul, making it 2-1 after 37 minutes.

But Porto could find no way through the Real defence again and Zinedine Zidane sealed the points when he volleyed home a low driven free-kick by Luis Figo after 66 minutes.

European champions AC Milan were outplayed for long periods and were fortunate to escape with a 0-0 draw against Celta Vigo in an absorbing Group H encounter.

RESULTS:

Group E
Panathinaikos 1-1 Rangers
VfB Stuttgart 2-1 Man Utd

Group F
FC Porto 1-3 Real Madrid
Marseille 3-0 Partizan Belgrade

Group G
Chelsea 0-2 Besiktas
Lazio 2-2 Sparta Prague

Group H
Ajax 2-0 Club Brugge
Celta Vigo 0-0 AC Milan