Jose Mourinho’s season took another turn for the worse on a night of surprises in the Champions League.
With Chelsea floundering in 14th in the English Premier League, a win against Porto on Tuesday would have been a much-needed boost, but instead Mourinho watched a 2-1 defeat at the hands of the club he led to the Champions League title in 2004.
Mourinho said his team paid the price for “two ridiculous mistakes” in defense as Andre Andre and Maicon’s goals powered the Portuguese team to victory.
Porto went ahead in the 39th minute when Yacine Brahimi beat Branislav Ivanovic and Gary Cahill on the left, with goalkeeper Asmir Begovic pushing away Brahimi’s shot only as far as Andre, who fired a first-time volley into the net.
Willian leveled with a curling free-kick in first-half stoppage-time as Iker Casillas, making a competition record 152nd appearance, did not even move.
Maicon sealed it in the 52nd, putting the Portuguese club level with group leaders Dynamo Kiev on four points, one ahead of Chelsea.
Arsenal fared no better than their London rivals, losing 3-2 at home to Olympiakos. That left Arsenal on the bottom bottom of Group F with rapidly shrinking hopes of qualifying for the knockout stages. Another surprise was in store in Belarus, where BATE Borisov upset AS Roma 3-2.
BATE was widely expected to be a serial loser in Group E, but two goals from left back Filip Mladenovic powered the Belarusian team to a surprise victory. Roma staged a second-half comeback with goals from Gervinho and Vasilis Torosidis, but were denied a point when Alessandro Florenzi’s shot hit the crossbar late on.
A goalkeeping blunder by David Ospina helped Olympiakos.
Ospina fumbled a corner over his line to give the visitors a 2-1 first-half lead, while substitute Alfred Finnbogason scored the winner in the 66th minute — almost immediately after Alexis Sanchez had drawn Arsenal level.
Arsenal, who have advanced past the first group stage every year since 2001, have now lost both their opening games — and still have two meetings with Group F leaders Bayern Munich to come.
In Israel, Dynamo cruised to a 2-0 win over Maccabi Tel Aviv, who were yet to score a goal in this season’s group stage. Andriy Yarmolenko put the Ukrainian team ahead in the fourth minute, before Junior Moraes struck five minutes into the second half.
Hulk delivered a man-of-the-match performance as Zenit St Petersburg made it two wins from two matches in Group H with a 2-1 defeat of KAA Gent.
Hulk had two assists, while Artem Dzyuba scored his first Champions League goal and Oleg Shatov notched the winner.
Midfielder Thomas Matton scored his fourth goal in three games for Gent, equalizing in the 56th minute, but Shatov ended Gent’s 12-game unbeaten start to the season.
Valencia got their campaign back on track with a 1-0 win against Olympique Lyonnais following an opening home loss to Zenit.
Sofiane Feghouli’s powerful strike in the 42nd minute was left unanswered, despite the hosts’ heavy pressure in the second half. However, a lack of cutting edge and two excellent saves from Valencia goalkeeper Jaume Domenech sealed Lyon’s fate.
Lyon could have taken the lead in the 27th minute when Mathieu Valbuena’s curled free-kick forced Domenech to tip the ball onto his post. Valencia also hit the woodwork twice before the interval.
Zenit remained on top of Group H with six points, three more than Valencia. Lyon and Gent have one point apiece.
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