Valencia claims hard-fought point

Spain's Champions League sides enjoyed a broadly satisfactory round of fixtures this week, with Juan Carlos Garrido, the coach of the sole defeated side, Villarreal, noting that "a pair of gifts" had handed Napoli a 2-0 win. His goalkeeper, Diego López, concurred, calling the defensive errors that led to Marek Hamsik's opener and a clear penalty barely two minutes later "schoolboy errors on our part."

Villarreal was drawn in the so-called Group of Death, with Bayern Munich, Manchester City and Napoli, and has lost to the German and Italian sides without finding the net. City, for its part, is finding that a limitless supply of cash cannot purchase Champions League experience - Roberto Mancini's team tied with Napoli and was beaten 2-0 by Bayern - and probably represents Villarreal's best chance of a revival in the competition when the two meet in a double header in October and November, with the first fixture to be played at the City of Manchester stadium.

Valencia, too, faces an uphill battle to qualify from the similarly sticky Group E, which features Chelsea, 2002 finalist Bayer Leverkusen and the unpredictable Belgian champion, Genk, which held Unai Emery's team to a goalless tie in the low countries.

Valencia secured a further point in dramatic style on Wednesday when Chelsea visited Mestalla. After Frank Lampard had given Andre Villas-Boas' side the lead on 56 minutes, Chelsea hammered Diego Alves' goal but the Brazilian stopper justified his rise from Almería to a top squad by denying several clear goal-scoring opportunities.

A raft of substitutions then shifted momentum to Valencia, which in turn harried Petr Cech in the Chelsea goal as the clock wound down. Salomon Kalou, who had just stepped onto the field, handled in the area on 87 minutes and Roberto Soldado gratefully crashed the spot kick home to earn his side a valuable point.

There appear to be no such concerns over progression to the knockout rounds at either Camp Nou or the Bernabéu after routine victories for both Barça and Real Madrid, which had been handed reasonably easy draws in Groups H and D respectively. Barça dropped points to AC Milan in its first match though defensive lapses in the 1st and 91st minutes, but the bungling back four of Belarussian minnows Bate Borisov caught the full weight of Barça's attack on Wednesday. Leo Messi equaled the club's second-highest scorer, László Kubala, on 194 goals with a brace.

Real also sauntered to victory in the Bernabéu, although Ajax did make life uncomfortable for the home defense on a few occasions. Real's mastery of the counter-attack, though, was too much for the visitor and goals from Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaká and Karim Benzema - the first a wonderful collective effort - handed Real victory and the group leadership.