Barcelona put one foot in the quarter-finals of the Champions League with victory over a Leverkusen side who might wonder what might have been had they attacked from the start last night.

IF CHELSEA weren’t a club in crisis before last night, they are now.

DAVID LUIZ, the forgotten man of Chelsea’s January transfer spree, ensured it wasn’t all about Fernando Torres as Chelsea scraped past Bayer Leverkusen in their opening fixture of the Champions League; but the Spaniard did at least set up both goals to provide a glimmer of hope that his own luck is about to change.

Andre Villas-Boas rested Chelsea captain John Terry for tonight’s Champions League opener against Bayer Leverkusen at Stamford Bridge.

GERMANY took another ominous step towards South Africa 2010, Michael Ballack blasting home an early 30-yarder before the unlucky Ashley Williams scored an own goal for the clincher.

Wales 0 Germany 2

Bayer Leverkusen leapfrogged Hamburg to climb to third in the German Bundesliga standings courtesy of a 3-2 win at relegation-threatened Energie Cottbus.

CZECH REPUBLIC booked their spot in next summer’s European Championships last night with a 3-0 victory over Germany in Munich.

Blackburn 0 Bayer Leverkusen 0 (Leverkusen win 3-2 on aggregate)