Madrid maintain winning start as Marseille crush Belgrade

REAL MADRID overcame the loss of an early goal to beat Porto 3-1 and maintain their winning start in Group F.

Porto took the lead after only seven minutes when Costinha headed a rebound past Ilker Casillas after the Real goalkeeper flapped at a glancing header from Derlei.

But Real, despite being outplayed for most of the opening period, equalised when Ivan Helguera headed home a cross from Solari after 28 minutes.

Real then showed the first flash of their attacking best when a sweeping move ended with Solari, standing in for Raul, making it 2-1 after 37 minutes.

Porto could find no way through the Real defence again and Zinedine Zidane sealed the points when he volleyed home a low driven free-kick by Luis Figo after 66 minutes.

Elsewhere in the group, Ivory Coast striker Didier Drogba struck a second-half hat-trick to give Olympique Marseille a 3-0 win over 10-man Partizan Belgrade.

Drogba bundled in his first goal after 62 minutes and headed his second six minutes later as the French team made the most of their numerical superiority following the dismissal of Partizan striker Andrija Delibasic late in the first-half.

The livewire Drogba completed his hat-trick six minutes from time.

Two second-half goals from Simone Inzaghi helped Lazio battle back to force a draw with Sparta Prague in a Group G thriller at the Olympic Stadium.

It was a fine second-half effort from Roberto Mancini's side who now lead their group a scenario that had looked unlikely at the interval.

At the halfway point Sparta held a 2-0 lead, thanks to an inspirational performance from former Lazio player Karel Poborsky who helped create the opening goal for Libor Sionko and then bagged the second himself.

Poborsky was at the hub of the move for the opener as he found Libor Sionko who beat Giuseppe Favalli to the ball and fired past Angelo Peruzzi from close range.

Ten minutes before the interval the Czechs took a 2-0 lead with Poborsky once more proving the scourge of his former club.

However, when the teams emerged for the second period it only took Lazio seconds to get back in the match with Inzaghi goaling with ease. The same player then scored from the penalty spot midway through the half.

Striker Wesley Sonck struck twice to give Ajax their first points in Group H with a 2-0 win against Club Brugge KV in the Amsterdam ArenA.

The Belgian forward, who joined Ajax from Belgian First Division side KRC Genk, converted two one-on-ones with Brugge goalkeeper Tomislav Butina to leave the Belgian side bottom of the section with only one point from two games.

Champions AC Milan were outplayed for long periods and were fortunate to escape with a 0-0 draw against Celta Vigo in an absorbing Group H clash.

Milan hardly had a shot on goal during the 90 minutes while the Galicians created a string of good opportunities but were unable to add the finishing touch.