Barca, United win as Chelsea falter

Barcelona and fellow former Champions League winners Manchester United had to draw on all their class on Tuesday to come from behind and claim home wins against Celtic and Braga respectively. Barcelona’s last gasp 2-1 win over the Scottish champions and United’s 3-2 victory over Braga, which saw the English giants become only the second side to come back from a 2-0 deficit twice and win — the other being Arsenal — sees both of them needing just a point from their next games to seal a place in the knockout stages. Holders Chelsea, though, are going to have to battle hard to reach that stage after they came away 2-1 losers to an impressive Shakhtar Donetsk at their fortress in Ukraine. Shakhtar top that group on seven points while Chelsea’s loss was slightly offset as Juventus had to come from behind to draw 1-1 in Copenhagen against Danish minnows Nordsjaelland for whom Mikkel Beckmann’s goal was their first in the competition. Celtic had taken the lead through an own goal by Javier Mascherano — completing a wretched few days for the Argentinian who was sent off at the weekend — but a superb goal at the end of the first-half by Andres Iniesta levelled matters. Despite a splendid rearguard action throughout the second half Celtic succumbed to a goal by Jordi Alba — his first at the Nou Camp — in the fourth minute of time added on as Barca recorded their 100th win in Champions League competition. Victory also saw Barcelona break their club record for an unbeaten run at home extending the present one to 18, with their last defeat coming against Rubin Kazan in October 2009. “I think that our win was deserved,” said Alba, who moved to Barcelona in the summer from Valencia. “The strength of this (Barcelona) team, is that it resists till the end. “A match lasts for 90 minutes and that is the length of time that Barca spends trying to score.” Lennon said he couldn’t be prouder of his side and relished the chance of a second go at Barcelona in Glasgow in a fortnight. Despite Celtic’s bravura performance they only have a one point advantage over Spartak Moscow, who grabbed their first win of the campaign after two defeats with a 2-1 home win over Benfica. “We scored only twice but played with commitment both in attack and in defence giving our rivals almost no chance to play to their strengths,” said Spartak’s Spanish coach Unai Emery.