• Champions League round-up

Shaky draws for United and City

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Manchester City's first step into the Champions League group stages proved to be something of a learning curve as Roberto Mancini's men battled back to draw 1-1 with Napoli at the Etihad Stadium.

Mancini's expensively assembled starting line-up, including the likes of David Silva, Sergio Aguero, Samir Nasri and Edin Dzeko, wasted a glut of first-half opportunities and paid the price as they faded badly in the second half in front of their expectant home fans. In a match full of chances at both ends, Napoli broke the deadlock in the 69th minute through Edinson Cavani, and it needed a cleverly clipped free-kick from Aleksandar Kolarov to rescue a point.

Playing in front of a bubbling atmosphere City started well as Nasri fired narrowly wide inside three minutes. Aguero and Dzeko then both forced goalkeeper Morgan De Sanctis into emergency action as Silva and Nasri pulled the strings from midfield.

Napoli are known for allying a leaky defence to a potent attack, and that was clearly evident in two thrilling first-half moments. First Ezequiel Lavezzi opened his body to bend the ball against Joe Hart's bar, and then Yaya Toure - supplied wonderfully by Aguero - found the freedom at the other end to rattle the visitors' woodwork.

City were unfortunate to be on level terms at the break, but they were equally lucky not to fall behind on several occasions as the tide completely switched in the second period, most notably when Vincent Kompany cleared off the line from Marek Hamsik. Eventually a goal did arrive and it was sparked by a poor backheel from Gareth Barry, from which the Italians broke to allow Cavani to slide the ball under Hart.

City responded immediately as Aguero hit the bar, before Kolarov restored parity within six minutes of City falling behind as he clipped the ball over the wall from the right side of the area.

City's early rivals at the top of Group A are Bayern Munich, who defeated Villarreal 2-0 at El Madrigal. Toni Kroos needed just seven minutes to find the net for the German giants, converting Franck Ribery's cross, and then Rafinha doubled the advantage with 14 minutes remaining.

Manchester United finally had the chance to start erasing memories of their painful defeat to Barcelona in last year's final as they began the new campaign at Benfica, but Sir Alex Ferguson's men were somewhat fortunate to come away from their most difficult away fixture - on paper - with a 1-1 draw.

Ferguson made eight changes to his starting line-up at Estadio da Luz, with Jonny Evans and Chris Smalling providing inexperienced protection in front of Anders Lindegaard in goal. And they were almost penetrated twice inside the opening 20 minutes, first when Nicolas Gaitain fired wide of the far upright and then when Oscar Cardozo tested the hands of Lindegaard with a low strike.

The Portuguese side did not have to wait much longer for the breakthrough though, Cardozo chesting and dragging the ball past a helpless Evans before firing impressively into the far corner.

Wayne Rooney earned a yellow card as Manchester United drew with Benfica © PA Photos

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By half-time United could, and perhaps should, have trailed by a greater scoreline, yet from nothing they found an equaliser on the stroke of the interval. Ryan Giggs, who had started in rusty fashion, strode forward towards the edge of the area where he guided a superb shot into the top corner from 20 yards.

The veteran Welshman then almost single-handedly turned the match on its head when he wriggled free midway through the second period, but this time he was denied by Artur. The better save was still to arrive from United goalkeeper Lindegaard though, who got down superbly to turn the ball around a post, and United were grateful at the death to see Nolito stab wide with the goal gaping.

Elsewhere in Group C, FC Basel welcomed minnows Otelul Galati to the competition with a 2-1 victory at St Jakob Park. Fabian Frei opened the scoring just before half-time with his fourth of the season, but it was left to namesake Alexander to hit the winner from the penalty spot after Marius Pena had dragged Galati level. Adrian Salageanu was sent off for his part in the concession of the 84th minute penalty, before Benjamin Huggel saw red for the hosts in the final stages.

If Arsene Wenger is to be believed, Spanish giants Real Madrid are one of two sides, along with Barcelona, to be on a different level to the rest of Europe this season, but Jose Mourinho's men did little to prove the theory with a stuttering 1-0 triumph at Dinamo Zagreb.

Madrid missed a plethora of first-half chances before they eventually moved ahead eight minutes into the second period, Angel Di Maria expertly guiding the ball into the roof of the net from Marcelo's pass. Marcelo then saw red when he was deemed to have dived for a second booking,

Ajax and Lyon are expected to fight it out for second place in Group D, but neither could draw first blood in a 0-0 draw in Amsterdam.

Also on Wednesday, the 2009-2010 champions Inter Milan were shocked by Trabzonspor, who won 1-0 at Stadio Giuseppe Meazza. Ondrej Celustka was the man to stun the home crowd with a low drive.

And Joe Cole came off the bench as Lille threw away a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 with CSKA Moscow in France. Moussa Sow scored the opener with a backheel after he had hit an upright in the build-up to the goal, and Benoit Pedretti doubled Lille's advantage just before the hour. However, CSKA halved the deficit with 18 minutes left through Seydou Doumbia, and the same man rescued a point in injury time.

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