Fernando Torres put his nightmare start to the new season behind him with a brace as Chelsea swept aside Belgian champions Genk 5-0 in Group E.

Andre Villas-Boas’ side have not lost a European tie at Stamford Bridge for eight years

and that was never likely to be threatened by the Belgians, who remain bottom of the group with a solitary point.

Raul Meireles fired home to give Chelsea an eighth minute lead, and then Torres added his pair in the 11th and 27th minutes. Branislav Ivanovic put the home side out of sight before hand time, and Salomon Kalou completed the rout.

Bayer Leverkusen staged a dramatic second half comeback to beat Valencia 2-1 in Germany and do themselves a huge favour in their battle to reach the knockout stages alongside likely qualifiers Chelsea.

Brazilian Jonas gave the Spaniards a 24th minute lead but two goals in four second half minutes from Andre Schurrle and Sidney Sam gave Leverkusen a win that takes them four points clear in second place.

Aaron Ramsey netted a dramatic injury time winner as Arsenal grabbed a magnificent 1-0 win at Marseille which enabled Arsene Wenger’s men to leapfrog the Frenchmen and go top of Group F.

The Gunners largely dominated the game on the back of a strong defensive performance but looked set to have to settle for a point until Ramsey met Johan Djourou’s late cross with a decent finish.

On a night which saw the group blown wide open, Olympiakos claimed their first points with a 3-1 win over Borussia Dortmund in Greece.

Rafik Djebbour and Francois Modesto earned the points for the home side after Jose Holebas’ eighth minute opener had been cancelled out midway through the first half by Dortmund’s Robert Lewandowski.

Milan and Barcelona made qualification from Group H appear a mere formality as both continental giants recorded straight-forward home wins over BATE Borisov and Viktoria Plzen respectively.

In Italy, Milan were never troubled by the Ukrainians with Zlatan Ibrahimovic opening the scoring after 33 minutes and Kevin Prince Boateng making it 2-0 with 20 minutes to play.

Defending champion Barcelona kept pace with an equally assured win over the outclassed Plzen, Andres Iniesta opening the scoring on 10 and David Villa rounding things off eight minutes from time.

In Group G, surprise package APOEL continue to set the pace after holding out for a 1-1 draw away to Porto. Hulk gave the home side a 13th minute lead but Brazilian Ailton Almeida equalised six minutes later.

APOEL stay top because Shakhtar Donetsk and Zenit St Petersburg could not be separated in Ukraine. Shakhtar twice led through Willian and Luiz Adriano, but were pegged back by goals from Roman Shirokov and Viktor Faizulin.

Source: ESPNstar.com