Olympiakos hit last year’s finalists Leverkusen for six

OLYMPIAKOS Piraeus thrashed last year’s finalists Bayer Leverkusen 6-2 helped by a hat-trick from Predrag Djordjevic in their opening Group F Champions League match.

Leverkusen were gifted the lead after 22 minutes as Olympiakos's goalkeeper Dimitris Eleftheropoulos scooped a Bernd Schneider cross into his own goal.

That seemed to galvanise the Greek champions who poured forward with Giovanni heading the equaliser from a corner five minutes later.

Leverkusen could not clear their lines under pressure from Olympiakos, who took the lead thanks to a close-range strike from Stelios Giannakopoulos seven minutes before half-time.

With the visitors reeling, Djordjevic scored his first of the night a minute before the break.

The Yugoslav winger grabbed two more one from the penalty spot just after the hour and an excellent individual effort in the 73rd minute to complete his hat-trick.

Leverkusen snatched a consolation goal with a Schneider penalty in the 78th minute before the hosts struck once more through a Par Zetterberg free kick on 86 minutes.

Meanwhile Bayern Munich suffered their first home defeat in the Champions League for five years as a Roy Makaay hat-trick gave Deportivo la Coruna a 3-2 win in the Group G opener.

The Dutch international struck in the 12th and 45th minutes to give the Spanish visitors a shock 2-0 lead at half-time.

Bayern had gone 29 matches without defeat in the competition at the Olympic stadium since Gothenburg beat them 1-0 in 1997.

They fought back after the break with goals in the 57th and 64th minutes from Bosnian midfielder Hasan Salihamidzic and Brazilian striker Elber.

Makaay was not finished, however, and he sealed the points in the 77th minute following another swift Deportivo counter-attack.

In Champions League Group H Barcelona survived a late scare from Club Bruges to win 3-2.

Luis Enrique (5), Gaizka Mendieta (40), and Javier Saviola (43) were all on target for the Spanish giants, while Timmy Simons with a 22nd minute penalty and a strike from Gaetan Englebert 5 minutes from time were the Belgian scorers.

A goal 16 minutes from time from former Celtic striker Pierre van Hooijdonk gave Feyenoord a 1-1 draw with Juventus in Group E last night.

Mauro Camoranesi put the Italian champions ahead on 32, but the Dutch side, winners of last season's UEFA Cup battled back to equalise.

Meanwhile, at the San Siro, AC Milan defeated Lens 2-1.

Filippo Inzaghi scored twice for the Italians on 57 and 62 minutes. RC Lens' Daniel Moriera managed a consolation after 75 minutes before a crowd of 70,259.

Turkish champions Galatasary have chalked up their first victory over a Russian club with a 2-0 win at Lokomotiv Moscow.

Senegalese defender Adama Sarr put the visitors ahead in the opening Group H match on 72 minutes.

He had just replaced Hasan Sas, and beat Lokomotiv's Russian international goalkeeper Sergei Ovchinnikov with a close-range header.

Arif Erdem, who had been denied first by a post and then by the bar in the first half, doubled the lead nine minutes later.

Galatasaray, who used seven players from Turkey's World Cup team in last night's match, had never beaten Russian opponents and in three previous visits to Moscow had failed to score.