UEFA Champions League round-up - Victory for Barcelona, Arsenal, Napoli; Dortmund, Chelsea shocked

Messi became the first player to score more than four hat-tricks in the Champions League

A hat-trick by Lionel Messi saw Barcelona begin their Champions League campaign with a 4-0 win over Ajax. The goals also took Messi’s Champions League tally to 62 goals, making him the first player to score more than four hat-tricks in the Champions League. Gerard Pique scored the third goal of the game thanks to a brilliant cross from Neymar.

Group H also saw AC Milan beat Celtic 2-0. Emilio Izaguirre scored an own goal giving AC Milan the lead and Sulley Muntari got a second, thus ensuring the Rossoneri get three points.

While they were just recovering from their loss against Everton, Chelsea were shocked by Basel at Stamford Bridge. Jose Mourinho’s first Champions League tie after returning to Chelsea didn’t quite turn out too well. Oscar gave the Blues a good start, but 71 minutes into the game, Mohamed Salah scored for the visitors and 11 minutes later, Basel’s skipper Marco Streller secured the three points with a late near-post header.

In the same group, Schalke FC sit at the top of the table after defeating Steaua Bucharest 3-0 with goals from Atsuto Uchida, Kevin-Prince Boateng and Julian Draxler.

Dortmund were left extremely frustrated after last night’s game against Napoli. A 2-1 loss, a red card for goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller who was handling the ball outside the penalty area and manager Jurgen Klopp was sent to the stands following an altercation with the fourth official. Rafael Benitez, on the other hand, got off to a good start with his summer signing Gonzalo Higuain and Italy international Lorenzo Insigne scoring the two goals. A late Camilo Zuniga own goal was the only highlight for Dortmund.

Arsenal beat Marseille 2-1 at the Stade Velodrome. This was Arsenal’s 10th successive away win which began when they beat Bayern Munich last season in the second leg of the their last 16 tie on March 13. Aaron Ramsey was in splendid form as he netted in a crucial goal 6 minutes before full-time. Theo Walcott gave the Gunners the lead and the stoppage time penalty by Marseille’s Jordan Ayew made little difference.

Group G had Atletico Madrid secure a 3-1 victory over Russian side Zenit St Petersburg. Miranda, Arda Turan and Leo Baptista scored at home while Hulk scored the only goal for the visitors. In the group’s other game, Porto beat Austria Vienna 1-0 with a goal from Lucho Gonzalez.