Chelsea's Michael Essien (right) scores against Werder Bremen during their Champions League Group A soccer match at Stamford Bridge in London yesterday. - reuters

london (reuters)

European champions Barcelona led the charge of the fancied teams over the first obstacle of the Champions League course when they nearly all scored emphatic victories yesterday.

Barcelona thumped Levski Sofia 5-0 — a sobering start for the first Bulgarian club to reach this stage of the competition — for their biggest Champions League win.

Bayern Munich played superbly in the second half after a woeful opening 45 minutes to beat Spartak Moscow 4-0 at home, while AS Roma beat Shakhtar Donetsk 4-0 in Rome with all their goals also coming in the second half.

Chelsea beat Werder Bremen 2-0 in London with German national skipper Michael Ballack scoring his first goal for the club as he fired home from the penalty spot against his compatriots to seal the win.

Inter Milan, though, slipped up in Lisbon, losing 1-0 to Sporting and having Patrick Vieira sent off midway through the second half.

In the other games, Valencia beat Olympiakos Piraeus 4-2 in Greece in a match in which both teams led during the game.

Fernando Morientes, the former Real Madrid striker back in Spain after a short sojourn in Liverpool, scored a hat-trick for Valencia.

Two matches failed to end conclusively with PSV Eindhoven and Liverpool drawing 0-0 in the Netherlands, while Galatasaray were held to a goalless draw in Istanbul by Girondins Bordeaux.

Matchday One will be completed today with the remaining eight matches in the other four groups.

BARCA FIRST

Fittingly, it was European champions Barcelona who scored the first goal of this season's competition proper following the qualifying rounds.

Andres Iniesta put Barca ahead after seven minutes and they went on to dominate not only the Bulgarians, but also the elements in the Nou Camp.

Despite heavy rainfall throughout the match, Barcelona played superbly with Ludovic Giuly (39), Carles Puyol (49), Samuel Eto'o (58) and Ronaldinho, who scored in stoppage time, blowing Sofia off the park.

Bayern, European champions as recently as 2001, but who now regard themselves as also-rans in the competition because they cannot compete with the wealth of clubs in England, Spain, and Italy, showed Spartak Moscow they still know what European football is all about — in the second half at least.

Claudio Pizarro set them on their way with a 48th minute strike, while Roque Santa Cruz (52), Bastian Schweinsteiger (71) and Hasan Salihamidzic (84) wrapped up the victory.