UEFA Champions League 2011: Real Madrid Edge Dinamo Zagreb While Trabzonspor Trip Up Inter Milan

One of them battled their way back to snatch a draw against the French champions Lille and the other, less than impressively, contrived to throw away a one-goal lead and lose 2-1 to the Cypriot champions APOEL. CSKA and Zenit, therefore, had differing fortunes in this week’s first round of Champions League fixtures.

The Russian press meanwhile were suitably underwhelmed by both results. This campaign was - some had thought - the year when the Russian clubs could make their mark on Europe’s foremost footballing competition. With both Zenit and CSKA having had success in the UEFA Cup/Europa League in past years, the clubs have - or so goes the notion - had a reasonable amount time to acclimatise to the pace and styles accustomed to Champions League football. Without wanting to draw knee-jerk conclusions from this week’s matches, we can say that some of the predictions may have been a little ambitious.

With Inter wasting opportunities, Trabzonspor pounced. Halil Altintop just missed from 12 yards, hitting his shot off of the crossbar. Julio Cesar gave chase to the rebound off of the bar, but Ondrej Celustka beat him to it. He got to the ball and knocked it home, stunning the San Siro crowd and propelling the Turkish side to victory.

It was a shock result for Tranzonspor, who weren’t even supposed to be in the competition. Fenerbahce were supposed to be in the Champions League, but match fixing allegations saw them get the boot and Tranzonspor took their place. Now they’ve defeated the 2009 champions. Not bad for a stand-in.

It all could have been very different had Ivan Kelava not distinguished himself in goal for Zagreb - he was responsible for keeping Madrid at bay for the entirety of the first half, and pulled off what’s likely to be one of the saves of this year’s tournament when he leaped up to bat away Mesut Ozil’s close range effort in the 29th minute having been forced to sprawl to prevent Angel di Maria’s low drive seconds earlier.

It was a fairly encouraging display by the home side, and Real Madrid will be pleased with what was, all in all, a dominating performance. A 1-0 scoreline isn’t too big a deal when you’ve blown the opposition off the park and slung 24 shots towards their goal, after all.

Porto have lost both Andre Villas-Boas and Radamel Falcao over the summer, but the Portuguese champions are hardly a spent force. Any team that features Hulk is a threat, and Porto showed it at the Estadio de Dragao, despite Shakhtar Donetsk going ahead in the 12th minute thanks to a tap in by Luiz Adriano after Helton failed to hold a shot by Willian. Hulk, who had hit the post with a penalty before the opening goal, replied with a stunning free kick in the 28th minute, and when Shakhtar found themselves down to ten men thanks to a bad challenge by Yaroslav Rakitskiy on Joao Moutinho, everyone knew that it was just a matter of time before Porto got their winner.

Said winner eventually arrived through Kleber, shortly after half time, when the 21-year-old met James’ Rodriguez cross to convert from very close range. Porto had complete control of the game now, and their task was made easier thanks to Dmytro Chygrynskiy picking up his second booking of the match in the 80th minute. It was a deserved win for last season’s Europa League winners, even if poor finishing meant the scorline wasn’t quite as glossy as it should have been.

In a group that features Porto, Shaktar Donetsk, and Zenit St. Petersburg, APOEL Nicosia are supposed to be the whipping boys. The Cypriots were having none of that in their opening match of the 2011 UEFA Champions League campaign, turning a 1-0 deficit at home against Zenit into a 2-1 win that turns Group G on its head with their first ever victory in the group stages.

The Russians spent the rest of the match trying to reverse the deficit, but nothing was happening for them, and they ended up suffering ignominious defeat in Cyprus. This result puts them in severe peril of not qualifying for the knockout rounds, because now all Shaktar and Porto need to do is not lose to Zenit and beat APOEL, and they’re probably through. Oopsies.

Still, three points is three points, and Marseille did their job. They got in, grabbed a goal, and got out again before their opponents could reply, something that Arsenal couldn’t quite pull off in Dortmund.

Sixteen teams are in action in eight different games in the 2011-12 UEFA Champions League on Tuesday, all at the exact same time. Things will get a little broken up for everyone in weeks where Zenit St. Petersburg plays at home, but they’re away to APOEL Nicosia. I doubt they’re too broken up about the trip to Cyprus. That’s one of the five matches that we’ll be following along with here, along with Genk vs. Valencia, Olympiacos vs. Marseille, Porto vs. Shakhtar Donetsk and Viktoria Plzen vs. BATE Borisov. The other three matches have their own dedicated space.

Follow along with the three biggest matches of the day