Barca Rub It In

Bojan added the fourth and Xavi Fernandez completed the rout within three minutes after the interval to give Barcelona an excellent chance of securing their progress to the last 16 in the reverse fixture against the Swiss side next month.

Barca coach Pep Guardiola hailed his team’s impressive performance as important for the rest of the campaign and said the win was not as easy as it might have looked. “We will not let the result get to our heads, but it was important for the future,” he said. “It is never easy and the players were always having to work and give their maximum but we did what we wanted to do, running the ball and playing well between the lines.”

Terry heads Chelsea home

Chelsea also closed in on the knockout stage after a John Terry header gave them a 1-0 home win over Roma and five-time winners Liverpool are in a good position too following a 1-1 draw at Atletico Madrid.

That result left the two teams joint top in Group D on seven points after Simao Sabrosa steered in a late equaliser to cancel out Robbie Keane’s 14th-minute opener for Liverpool.

“If you had said before the game that we would have seven points after three matches I would have said ‘Good’,” Liverpool coach Rafa Benitez said. “But after we were leading after 83 minutes I would say we lost two points.”

PSV Eindhoven chalked up their first points in the group with a 2-0 home win over Olympique Marseille, courtesy of a Danny Koevermans brace that left the 1993 European Cup winners rooted to the bottom with three defeats.

An Adriano header on the stroke of half-time handed Inter Milan a 1-0 home success against Anorthosis Famagusta, leaving them firmly in the driving seat in Group B with seven points ahead of the Cypriots, who have four.

Inter coach Jose Mourinho praised his team’s professional performance that fell short of the sparkling form they showed in Sunday’s 4-0 Italian league rout of Roma. “It’s not been possible to play a fantastic game and have a performance like at Roma but the players have played with great professionalism,” he said.

Werder Bremen registered their third straight draw in that group after a 2-2 stalemate at Panathinaikos thanks to Hugo Almeida’s 83rd-minute equaliser. The draw gave the Greek side their first point.