Wins for Milan and Real, but Chelsea and Liverpool are held

[SOCCER] HAMBURG - There were opening victories for AC Milan and Real Madrid in Tuesday's Champions League group phase matches, but Premiership clubs Liverpool and Chelsea were held to draws.

 In Madrid, Real captain Raul gave the Spanish champions the lead in the 16th minute with a header from close distance after a Ruud van Nistelrooy cross.

  The lead lasted less than a minute though as Ivorian international Boubacar Sanogo pushed a speculative shot from defender Dusko Tosic past Iker Cassilas into the back of the net.

 Van Nistelrooy put the home side ahead with his 50th Champions League goal in the 74th minute after being set up by Raul.

 Werder Bremen coach Thomas Schaaf said that even though his side had lost, he was satisfied with their performance. "We had our chances and could have gone ahead and if we had managed, things might have been different, but we must remember that we were not playing against any side, we were playing against Real Madrid.

 "My players kept the chances for Real Madrid to a few and I have to be happy with that. Of course I would have like to have returned to Germany with a point, or even three, but we played well and I can't fault my players."

   The other Group C game in Piraeus took place in an empty stadium after Olympiakos had been penalized for crowd troubles last season.

 The home side opened the scoring through Luciano Galletti, but Luciano Zauri equalized for the Serie A side to give them a share of the spoils.

 Big spending Premiership side Chelsea were shocked in their Group B game by Rosenborg defender Miika Koppinen's 24th minute goal. Although Chelsea completely dominated proceedings thereafter, it took them another 30 minute to draw level through Andriy Shevchenko and they were booed off the field at the end of the 90 minutes.

 Spanish club Valencia are the early leaders in the group after winning 1-0 at Bundesliga club Schalke 04.

 Although the German side enjoyed most of the possession, Valencia made the most of their first chance they had in the second half as defender Miguel sent David Villa into space and a mistake by goalkeeper Manuel Neuer allowed the striker to score.

 Germany striker Kevin Kuranyi said that Schalke created more chances. "But we could not convert ours. I think they had one chance in the second half and they scored from that."

   The defending champions AC Milan had no difficulties beating Benfica Lisbon 2-1 in Group D. Andrea Pirlo and Filippo Inzaghi scored for the home side early in the match, while Nuno Gomes pulled one back in injury time for the Portuguese team.

 Ukrainian club Shakhtar Donetsk top the group after a 2-0 victory against Celtic. Brazilian Brandao and Italian Cristiano Lucarelli scored the goals in the 6th and 8th minute.

 Liverpool, who had Jermaine Pennant sent off in the second half, were held to a 1-1 draw in Porto in their Group A game.

 Lucho Gonzalez scored for the home side in the 8th minute, but Dutch striker Dirk Kuyt found the net for Liverpool in the 16th minute.

 French club Marseille scored twice late in the second half through Julien Rodriguez (76) and Djibril Cisse (90) to become the first log leaders.

DPA