Real Madrid had a hard time on their visit to Auxerre, but won 0-1. Barcelona just like last season still can’t defeat Rubin Kazan and tied 1-1. Manchester United defeated Valencia without Wayne Rooney 1-0. Inter had no problems to beat Werder Bremen 4-0. And Chelsea defeated Marseille 2-0.

Barcelona was unable to break through the defensive block from Rubin Kazan, and it was the Russians that took the lead with a penalty kick from Christian Noboa in minute 30. The equalizer had to come through another penalty kick, which David Villa turned into goal to even things up in minute 60. Absent in the last two LIGA BBVA games -because of a foul from Atletico de Madrid’s defender Thomas Ujfalusi- Messi saw action again in the second half for 30 minutes, finishing the game without signs of pain, and seemed to be fully recovered. With this result, combined with the victory from Copenhagen against Panathinaikos for 2-0, the Spaniards lose the first place of group D to the Danish.

One team that awakened great expectations for this season is Real Madrid, thanks to the arrival of Portuguese coach Jose Mourinho -former Champions League winner with Porto in 2004 and Inter in 2010- to the club. Although they have won both games in the group phase, the performance of the teams has been poor and far from what it is expected from them. On the first game against Ajax they won 2-0, but missed a lot of scoring chances. And against Auxerre they struggled too much to finally win the game 1-0 thanks to a late goal from Angel Di Maria in minute 81. On Week 3 they will be disputing the first place of Group G against Milan that comes in second place with 4 points.

Just like in the Premier League, Chelsea commands the classification in Champions League Group F, product of two wins in the same number of games. Captain John Terry’s header and Nicolas Anelka penalty kick gave them the 2-0 victory against Marseille. The team is looking strong and is definitely one of the candidates to win the competition.

Another English team that won in Matchday 2 is Manchester United. They had a difficult visit to Valencia, and the Red Devils had to face the game without their biggest star: Wayne Rooney, out for three weeks due an ankle injury. The 1-0 win helps them to recover from the 0-0 home game during Week 1 versus Glasgow Rangers. Mexican Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez scored that goal that helped his team to climb to the first place of Group C with 4 points.

The defending champions Inter also had a chance to recover from their 2-2 tie versus FC Twente, and resoundingly defeated the Germans from Werder Bremen 4-0, thanks to a hat trick from Samuel Eto’o. Rafa Benitez’s team has four points as well as Tottenham, but the goal average gives the Italians the lead in Group A.

Match day 3 will be played during Tuesday, October 19 and Wednesday, October 20, with the games between Real Madrid vs. Milan and Inter vs. Tottenham as the main attractions.