UEFA Champions League Wednesday: Arsenal And Chelsea Roll While Bayern, Madrid, Milan Post 2-0 Wins

Carlos Vela scored two late goals in a substitute’s role, finishing-off Arsenal’s 6-0 route of Sporting Braga.

The Mexican international came on in the 63rd minute for Marouane Chamakh, scoring six minutes later with some help from Andrei Arshavin, the Russian’s second assist of the night. Vela flipped Arshavin’s pass over goalkeeper Felipe for Arsenal’s fifth goal.

Marseille is on the verge of a huge loss after defender Cesar Azpilicueta’s own goal has visiting Spartak Moscow up 1-0 late at the Stade Vélodrome.

A ball from Spartak’s left flank was put into the Marseille net by right back Azpilicueta, making his Champions League debut. The shock goal turns a match that had been dominated by the hosts, with Spartak failing to register a shot on goal throughout the match.

Dominant play from Bayern Munich finally paid off in the 78th minute when Thomas Muller broke a scoreless tie, giving the German champions a 1-0 lead on visiting Roma. Then, five minutes later, substitute Miroslav Klose slammed home an insurance goal, giving Bayern a 2-0 late at the Allianz arena.

Muller’s goal came off a corner kick, with central defender Daniel van Buyten heading a ball down for the attacker, whose right-footed shot beat Julio Sergio for the opening goal.

Mesut Ozil did much of the work, but the goal will go down as Gonzalo Higuain’s. The Real Madrid striker finished from inside Ajax’s six yard box in the 73rd minute, right-footing home a Ozil ball to give Los Blancos a 2-0 lead.

Real Madrid has dominated the match, but beyond a corner kick rattled home off Higuain in the first half, their dominance has not led to results on the scoreboard. Now with a two goal lead, Madrid looks set to join Milan, up 2-0 on Auxerre, at the top of Group G.

Darijo Srna beat Serbian international Vladimir Stojkovic from long range to break a scoreless tie, putting Shaktar Donetsk up 1-0 on Partizan in Ukraine.

From 26 yards out, on a ball spotted just outside Stojkovic’s right post, Srna beat the Partizan goalkeeper to the lower right hand corner, giving the Ukrainian champions a 1-0 lead in the 71st minute.

Three minutes after scoring his first goal in red and black, Zlatan Ibrahimovic has his first Milan brace, beating Olilvier Sorin far post from 16 yards out, giving Milan a 2-0 lead.

Ibrahimovic took his shot from the left of Auxerre’s goal, putting a low right-footer just inside Sorin’s far post, doubling Milan’s lead.

Marseille is running out of time to get a goal from visiting Spartak. Though they’ve had all of the match’s scoring chances, the visiting Russians have been able to keep the match scoreless. As a result, Didier Deschamps has had to mark changes.

Andre-Pierre Gignac, playing his first Champions League match, has been brought on for Brandão, set to play between André Ayew and Mathieu Valbuena.

Daniel Sturridge gave Chelsea a 4-0 lead early in the second half, but Tomas Orevac has quickly reduced the lead to three, leaving the match 4-1 after 55 minutes.

Sturridge’s goal came off a well-weighted pass from Yossi Benayoun, setting-up his teammate for a left-footed finish from the middle of the area, giving Chelsea a four goal lead after 48 minutes.

Valentin Stocker has converted from the edge of the six to pull Basel within one at halftime at Cluj, 2-1.

A corner kick played to Alexandre Frei was crossed to the middle of Cluj’s area, where Stocker headed past Nuno Claro, bringing the Swiss champions within striking distance at intermission.

Despite dominating first half possession, Stocker’s chance was Basel’s first shot on goal.

Andrei Arshavin and Marouane Chamakh have added to Cesc Fabregas’s early penalty kick, giving Arsenal a 3-0 lead over visiting Braga.

Arshavin’s goal saw Fabregas take advantage of a Braga turn over. The Spanish midfielder dribbled into the edge of Sporting’s arena before finding Arshavin to his left for a right-footed finish.

Real Madrid has dominated the first half against visiting Ajax, and in the 31st minute they’ve gotten their payoff.

A corner kick from the left of goal seemed to randomly bounce-off striker Gonzalo Higuain before finding net, but the end result sees the hosts up 1-0 over Ajax after half-an-hour.

Midfielder Michael Essien converted a Chelsea break and a Nicolas Anelka set-up for his third goal in two matches, putting the Blues up 1-0 on hosting Zilina. The right-footed finish from the middle of the area comes four days after Essien recorded a brace at Upton Park in Chelsea’s 3-1 win over West Ham United.

The Blues start this match without regulars Ashley Cole, Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard.

Romanian champions CFR Cluj have scored twice within 12 minutes to take a 2-0 lead on Swizz champions Basel. Ionut Rada and Lacina Traore have the goals, with Emmanuel Culio assisting on each.

The first came from after a ninth minute corner kick, Culio eventually serving the ball to the middle of the Basel area. Rada’s header from new the spot beat Franco Costanzo to give the hosts an early lead.

Arsenal has gone up after nine minutes against Sporting Braga, with captain Cesc Fabregas converting from the spot to give the hosts a 1-0 lead.

The Gunners were awarded the kick after Braga goalkeeper Felipe brought down Arsenal strike Marouane Chamakh. Fabregas put his try into the upper-right hand corner of goal, giving Arsenal the early lead.