Celtic beat reigning champions AC Milan 2-1 in Wednesday night's Champions League action to complete a Glasgow double while downcast Chelsea gained some cheer with victory at Valencia.
Aussie striker Scott McDonald scored in the last minute to earn Celtic victory at Parkhead to add to city rivals Rangers' emphatic 3-0 win at six-time French champions Lyon on Tuesday.
On a poor night for last season's finalists, however, Liverpool were upstaged 1-0 by Marseille at Anfield giving them a major task to qualify from Group A.
PHOTO: AP
Chelsea produced their best soccer since Avram Grant took over from Jose Mourinho two weeks ago in their 2-1 fightback victory at Valencia to throw the Champions League Group B wide open.
The best of the action was in Glasgow however.
Celtic captain Stephen McManus gave the home side the lead in the 63rd minute, but five minutes later referee Markus Merk adjudged Lee Naylor to have grappled too enthusiastically with Milan skipper Massimo Ambrosini inside the penalty area and Kaka stroked home the spot-kick.
But with seconds remaining, McDonald pounced when Milan keeper Dida had saved a Gary Caldwell drive from the edge of the box and the three points were secure.
"It's been a good night," Strachan told Sky Sports. "Our footballers won the game for us, but not through football. Because they are playing the European champions, they cannot play exactly as they would like to."
"What they did when they gave the ball away and it didn't come off for them was they became good defenders. That gave us the platform to go on and win the game. I thought the players deserved a lot of credit," he said.
Strachan picked out McDonald for particular praise as the Australian finally got his reward for a tireless performance in front of the Parkhead crowd.
"He had to play against two fantastic central defenders," Strachan said. "He held the ball up well and when he gave it away, he was chasing."
"It was an easy night for them to play because they were physically stronger than us. It was raining which made the pitch heavy at times but they did their best and they saved us," he said.
"It was a magnificent feeling," McDonald told Sky Sports afterwards. "Right from the first go we were in their faces and it was a tremendous result."
Chelsea manager Grant said he was delighted with his players' approach in their victory at Valencia.
Valencia's David Villa opened the scoring after just nine minutes but an own goal midway through the first half by Emiliamo Moretti and a second half strike by the prolific Didier Drogba gave Chelsea a memorable win.
Grant said: "You saw the attitude in the last two weeks, it has been difficult, but it was good. I keep telling you I'm very happy with the attitude."
Victory took the Blues to the top of Group B and Grant continued: "Very good, it's nice to be at the top. We came here to win the game. I think we want to do it and in the right way. To come back from 1-0, the second half we dominated, I'm happy."
Marseille coach Erik Gerets paid tribute to the players who made his first match in charge such a memorable one with victory at Liverpool.
"It is my players who wrote the history, I was just on the touchline. But I'm very proud of them -- they made a few small mistakes technically but none tactically," Gerets said.
Midfielder Mathieu Valbeuna settled the contest with a superb late strike, curling a 25m shot into the top corner of the net as the Liverpool back four stood off him with a quarter of an hour left.
Real Madrid were twice pegged back by Lazio in their Group C clash which ended 2-2 at the Stadio Olympico.
It was a case of doubles all round with Ruud van Nistelrooy responsible for Real's goals and Goran Pandev starring for Lazio in a match billed rather unkindly given Lazio's performance as a 'David and Goliath' clash by one of the Italian sports papers.
In other matches, there were a number of away victories.
Porto won 1-0 at Besiktas in Group A, Schalke 04 won 2-0 at Rosenborg in Group B, while Olympiakos shocked Werder Bremen 3-1 in Germany in Group C and Shakhtar Donetsk of Ukraine triumphed 1-0 at Benfica in Group D.
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