PARIS: Zlatan Ibrahimovic was absent injured but Paris Saint-Germain still raised their game to beat Barcelona 3-2 in Champions League Group F.

David Luiz (10) opened the scoring at the Parc des Princes but the lead lasted only 60 seconds as Lionel Messi rounded off a superb move to equalise with Barcelona’s 500th Champions League goal.

Marco Verratti (26) restored PSG’s one-goal advantage at half time, before Blaise Matuidi (54) made it 3-1. Two minutes later Neymar smashed home through a crowd of bodies to score his seventh strike in all competitions this season but PSG held out to go top of the group even though Barcelona brought on Xavi for a Champions League record 143rd appearance.

PSG president Nasser al-Khelaïfi  described it as “the most beauitiful victory of my life.”

Laurent Blanc’s men had only drawn five of their eight Ligue 1 matches so far. They thus moved one point ahead of Barcelona and two above Ajax after the Dutch champions drew 1-1 at APOEL.

Gustavo Manduca (32) equalised for the Cypriot side from the spot four minutes after Lucas Andersen had put Ajax in front.

Manchester City already face a tough task in Group E as they could only manage a 1-1 draw at home to Roma. That was despite a perfect start after former City defender Maicon hauled back Sergio Aguero and the Argentinian converted the penalty.

Impressive Roma pulled level in the 23rd minute when veteran Francesco Totti showed a sharp burst of pace and chipped Joe Hart to become the oldest scorer in Champions League history at 38.

Closed do0rs

After their opening defeat to Bayern Munich, City are now three points off Roma and five behind Bayern who won 1-0 away to CSKA in Moscow in a match played behind closed doors.

The hosts, punished for racist conduct by their fans last season, fell behind in the 22nd minute after Mario Gotze was awarded a soft penalty by referee William Collum. Thomas Muller converted the penalty.

Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea took charge of Group G as former Benfica midfielder Nemanja Matic headed an early winner past Rui Patricio away to Sporting in Lisbon. The Blues are two points ahead of Schalke and Maribor, who could only manage a 1-1 draw at the Veltins-Arena.

Klaas-Jan Huntelaar’s (56) fine finish from just outside the box earned a point for Schalke after Damjan Bohar (37) had put Maribor in front.

Porto substitute Jackson Martinez scored two late goals to rescue a 2-2 draw at Shakhtar Donetsk and take the Portuguese side top of Group H.

Second-half strikes from Alex Teixeira (52) and Luiz Adriano (85) had given Shakhtar a 2-0 lead, but Martinez halved the deficit with an 89th-minute penalty and slotted home Porto’s equaliser a minute into stoppage time.

Rounding off the action in Group H’s other game, BATE Borisov beat Athletic Bilbao 2-1, with Denis Polyakov (19) and Aleksandr Karnitski (41) on target for the hosts before Aritz Aduriz pulled one back on the stroke of half-time.

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