Messi lights up first night
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The world's best player, Lionel Messi, lit up the opening night of the Champions League for Barcelona, although holder Inter Milan and Manchester United endured less than sparkling starts on Tuesday.
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Barcelona's Lionel Messi gestures as he celebrates after scoring his second goal against Panathinaikos during their Champions League Group D soccer match at Nou Camp stadium in Barcelona September 14, 2010. [Xinhua/Reuters Photo] |
The Argentine, like last season, treated Europe's blue-ribbon club competition as his personal playground, scoring two classy goals before missing a penalty as Barca recovered from an early shock to thrash visiting Panathinaikos 5-1 in Group D.
Inter took the lead but then had to come from behind to draw 2-2 at Dutch debutant Twente Enschede in Group A, with the Italians losing forward Goran Pandev to a knee injury.
A much-changed Manchester United could not find a way past obdurate Scottish visitor Rangers in Group C, drawing 0-0 in a game overshadowed by a serious ankle injury to Antonio Valencia.
The impish Messi bagged eight goals in the competition last season. Judging by his display at the Nou Camp against an overwhelmed Greek side, he will be aiming for double figures again as Barca sets about trying to reclaim the trophy.
Messi would have celebrated a hat-trick but for the second-half penalty save, and he also rattled the goal frame before halftime as he resumed normal service after failing to hit the target at the World Cup finals.
David Villa, Pedro and Dani Alves also found the net for the irresistible Catalans, who emphatically made up for their shock defeat by promoted Hercules in La Liga at the weekend.
"He is the best player in the world by some distance from the rest," said Barca coach Pep Guardiola. "It hurts him to miss and he has this amateur spirit of always wanting to play."
Own goal
Inter forward Diego Milito was not far behind fellow Argentine Messi in the Champions League goal charts last season, but he scored at the wrong end as Inter began the defense of its crown under new manager Rafael Benitez in jittery fashion.
Milito's own-goal briefly left Inter 2-1 behind at Twente after Wesley Sneijder had given the Italians an early lead.
Samuel Eto'o spared his blushes with an equalizer but Inter had to settle for a point after a goalless second half.
"In the first half we deserved nothing. We opened the scoring, but after that we faced serious problems," former Liverpool coach Benitez, who faces a colossal task filling the shoes of Jose Mourinho, told reporters.
The other game in Group A also ended 2-2, Tottenham Hotspur wasting a two-goal lead against Bundesliga side Werder Bremen on its first appearance in the European Cup since 1962.
"That first 42 minutes or so was the best you could ever see us play," said Tottenham coach Harry Redknapp.
"We passed the ball and opened them up time and time again. But then we conceded a bad goal, which suddenly bought them back into the game."
Manchester United struggled to find insipration in its goalless draw with Rangers and Valencia's misfortune capped a poor night for manager Alex Ferguson, whose decision to make 10 changes to the side that drew with Everton on Saturday misfired.
Wayne Rooney did return after being left out at the weekend as he deals with marital problems, but the England striker, like his teammates, huffed and puffed against the massed ranks of Rangers' eight-man defense without making a serious dent.
"Rangers set their stall out to defend and play on the counter-attack, and you have to respect that," Ferguson said.
"They came knowing what they wanted to do and they did it well. Our final ball wasn't good enough to get three points."
Winger Valencia fell to the turf after a seemingly innocuous tackle in the 63rd minute and Ferguson told Sky Sports he feared the Ecuadorean had broken his ankle.
Fiery baptism
Turkish side Bursaspor received a baptism of fire against Valencia, losing 4-0 at home in Group C's other game.
In Group B, Benfica and Olympique Lyon started with victories, neither of them particularly convincing.
Benfica beat Israel's Hapoel Tel Aviv 2-0 and last year's semifinalist Lyon chiseled out a 1-0 win over Schalke 04, which played the second half with 10 men after central defender Benedikt Hoewedes was harshly sent off before hte break.
Russian champion Rubin Kazan, which stunned Barcelona last season and will face it again later in Group D, was beaten 1-0 at Denmark's FC Copenhagen.
Wednesday marks Mourinho's Champions League bow with his new team Real Madrid hosting Martin Jol's Ajax Amsterdam; while last season's runner-up Bayern Munich hosts AS Roma as the opening games in the competition continue with matches in groups E-H.
