Football round-up - Tuesday 17 - Thursday 19 September

By Simon Wright – Follow me on Twitter @Siwri88

Midweek football was dominated by the return of European action, as the group stages got underway in the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League.  It was largely a good start for all English sides in continental action, with only Chelsea letting the country down.

The Blues slumped to a shock 2-1 home defeat to the Swiss side FC Basel in Group E.  Once again, Chelsea had a hatful of opportunities but were wasteful infront of goal.  After just 70 minutes, they only had a first half strike from Oscar to show for their efforts and were punished by two late goals on the counter attack from their dangerous visitors.  Basel made the semi-finals of the Europa League last season and are no mugs at this level.  It was a late header from Marco Streller than inflicted back-to-back defeats on Jose Mourinho and Chelsea.  Schalke 04 beat Steaua Bucharest 3-0 in the other Group E game.

London rivals Arsenal made an efficient start to Group F as the Gunners made it 10 successive away victories in all competitions.  Goals from Theo Walcott and Aaron Ramsey helped Arsene Wenger’s side to a 2-1 win in the often intimidating Stade Velodrome against Marseille of France.  Ramsey’s stunning start to the season continued, as he scored his sixth goal already of his campaign.  In the showbiz game of the week, Napoli edged out Borussia Dortmund 2-1, who had manager Jurgen Klopp sent to the stands.

Celtic put up a brave resistance in the San Siro against AC Milan before surrendering to two very late goals from Cristian Zapata and former Portsmouth midfielder Sulley Muntari.  Lionel Messi had another normal evening, bagging a treble in Barcelona’s 4-0 demolition of Dutch champions Ajax at the Nou Camp.

On Tuesday night, it was a winning start for the two Manchester clubs.  Manchester United comfortably beat Bayer Leverkusen 4-2 at Old Trafford.  United put in their most assured performance of the campaign as David Moyes made a winning start to life in Europe with the Red Devils.  Another two goals for Wayne Rooney saw the England striker reach another milestone, as he notched up his 200^th goal for the club.  Rooney has let his football do the talking so far this season, and has shown to all his doubters of how valuable he is to the United cause.  Robin van Persie and Antonio Valencia were the other goalscorers for the hosts.

Edin Dzeko, Yaya Toure and Sergio Aguero all found the target in Manchester City’s convincing 3-0 success against Viktoria Plzen in the Czech Republic.  In reality City could have won by five or six clear goals. 

Cristiano Ronaldo scored the 21^st hat-trick of his Real Madrid career as they thumped Galatasaray 6-1 in Istanbul.  New record signing Gareth Bale was only used as a second half substitute.  Holders Bayern Munich made a promising opening to their defence as they cruised to a 3-0 home win over CSKA Moscow, and Juventus were held to a 1-1 draw in Denmark by a resilient FC Copenhagen outfit.  Fabio Quagilarella, who stayed in Turin despite intense competition for striking positions at the Serie A champions, got the Juve equaliser to save embarrassed faces in Group B.

On Thursday night, there were two English victories and three clean sheets in the Europa League.  Swansea City achieved one of the greatest victories of their history as they went to the Mestalla in Group A and completely outplayed a very poor Valencia side.  The home outfit were restricted to 10 men inside nine minutes when French international Adil Rami received a red card for bringing down Wilfried Bony in a goalscoring position.  The Swans record signing soon had Michael Laudrup’s side infront, before second half goals from Michu (pictured) and a marvellous free-kick by the outstanding Jonathan de Guzman put further gloss on a richly deserved victory.  The 3-0 result didn’t flatter Swansea and Valencia look like a side that is a pale shadow of the one that reached back-to-back Champions League finals a decade ago.

As expected, Tottenham Hotspur saw off the threat of Tromso with plenty to spare.  Jermain Defoe proved a point to his manager Andre Villas-Boas with a first half brace, and Christian Eriksen scored the goal of the night in the closing stages to wrap up a leisurely 3-0 victory over limited opponents.  Tromso have only made the group stages following UEFA’s decision to chuck Besiktas out of the competition because of match-fixing allegations.  Wigan achieved a good 0-0 draw away in Belgium on their first European adventure against Zulte-Waregem.

In the Championship, QPR went to the top of the table despite drawing a blank in a truly awful game with Brighton.  The 0-0 draw extended their unbeaten run to seven games though, and preserved their record as the meanest defence in the league.  Blackpool dropped to second after losing 3-1 to struggling Millwall, who recorded their first victory of the campaign. 

Nottingham Forest stayed in the hunt after coming back from two goals down to rescue a home point against Middlesbrough, while Leicester City briefly went top on Tuesday night following their 2-1 triumph against Blackburn Rovers.  Brian McDermott’s first return to Reading since being sacked in March ended with a last-gasp defeat for his Leeds United side.  Adam le Fondre netted a 97^th minute winner for Reading.

Rangers progressed into the semi-finals of the Ramsdens Challenge Cup with an easy 3-0 triumph away to Queen of the South and in League One, Leyton Orient made it seven wins from seven games as they thrashed lowly Notts County 5-1.  Meanwhile Walsall got the better of Wolves 1-0 at Molineux in the Black Country derby, the first between the sides in the league since 2002.