Reigning champions Chelsea, Manchester United and Celtic have made it three wins from three for clubs from the United Kingdom in the Champions League tonight.
The Blues were made to play a patient game by Danish title-holders Nordsjaelland before eventually overcoming them for a 4-0 win in Copenhagen thanks to a double from Juan Mata, a brilliant free-kick from David Luiz and a late sealer from Ramires to get their campaign off and running.
United survived an early scare when going down a goal at Romanian club CFR Cluj before Robin van Persie saved the day with two clever finishes both from Wayne Rooney passes for a 2-1 victory whilst Celtic produced a late show to beat Spartak Moscow 3-2 in Russia.
Gary Hooper's early opener was cancelled out twofold via Spartak's Emmanuel Emenike before a Dmitriy Kombarov own-goal, after Juan Insaurralde's sending off, and a 90th minute Georgios Samaras header forced a come-from-behind win for the Scottish champions.
Alexis Sanchez and Cesc Fabregas were amongst the goals as Barcelona defeated Benfica 2-0 in Lisbon but it came at a cost for the Catalan giants with captain Carles Puyol coming from the pitch with a suspected broken arm and a late red card to Sergio Busquets.
Belarusian outfit BATE Borisov caused the upset of the night by beating last season's runners-up Bayern Munich 3-1 at home whilst Sporting Braga got the better of Galatasaray 2-0 in Istanbul.
In the remaining Champions League fixtures, Shakhtar Donetsk held Juventus to a 1-1 draw in Turin as Valencia got maximum points with a 2-0 home win over Lille courtesy of a Jonas double.
Tomorrow night sees Manchester City host Borussia Dortmund, Arsenal at home to Olympiakos, Real Madrid away at Ajax, AC Milan at Zenit St Petersburg, Dynamo Kiev up against Dinamo Zagreb, Paris Saint-Germain at FC Porto, Schalke versus Montpellier and Anderlecht at home to Malaga.
2012/13 UEFA Champions League scores
Group E
FC Nordsjaelland (DEN): 0 Chelsea (ENG): 4 (Juan Mata 33'/82', David Luiz 79', Ramires 89') Parken Stadion, Copenhagen, Denmark
Juventus (ITA): 1 (Christian Bonucci 25') Shakhtar Donetsk (UKR): 1 (Alex Teixeira 23') Juventus Stadium, Turin, Italy
Group F
BATE Borisov (BLR): 3 (Alyaksandr Pavlov 23', Vitali Rodionov 78', Renan Bressan 90') Bayern Munich (GER): 1 (Franck Ribery 90') Dynamo Stadium, Minsk, Belarus
Valencia (SPN): 2 (Jonas 38'/75') Lille (FRA): 0 (red card: Mathieu Debuchy 86') Mestalla, Valencia, Spain
Group G
Spartak Moscow (RUS): 2 (Emmanuel Emenike 41'/48', red card: Juan Insaurralde 63') Celtic (SCO): 3 (Gary Hooper 12', Dmitriy Kombarov (og) 71'), Georgios Samaras 90') Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow, Russia
Benfica (POR): 0 Barcelona (SPN): 2 (Alexis Sanchez 6', Cesc Fabregas 56', red card: Sergio Busquets 88') Estadio Da Luz, Porto, Portugal
Group H
Galatasaray (TUR): 0 Sporting Braga (POR): 2 (Ruben Micael 27', Alan 90') Turk Telekom Arena, Istanbul, Turkey
CFR Cluj-Napoca (ROM): 1 (Pantelis Kapetanos 14') Manchester United (ENG): 2 (Robin van Persie 29'/49') Stadionul Dr Constantin Radulescu, Transylvania, Romania
