UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE Marseille 1 Liverpool 2:Two first-half goals by Steven Gerrard gave Liverpool a 2-1 win at Olympique Marseille in their opening Champions League Group D match tonight. Marseille opened the scoring 23 minutes into a lively game when captain Lorik Cana beat an offside trap to collect an astute lob over the Liverpool defence by fellow midfielder Benoit Cheyrou and leave Pepe Reina no chance.
Midfielder Gerrard put Liverpool level with a splendid goal three minutes later, latching on to a fine Dirk Kuyt pass from the right and firing into the top corner from the edge of the box.
The Liverpool captain then gave his side the lead from a penalty which he had to take twice on 31 minutes. The visitors were awarded the spot-kick after Ryan Babel was brought down in the area by Marseille defender Ronald Zubar.
Former European champions Marseille, who were thrashed 4-0 the last time Liverpool came to their Velodrome stadium in December 2007, put up a brave fight but suffered against opponents physically superior and better organised.
In the other game of the group PSV lost 3-0 at home to Atletico Madrid.
Chelsea, last season's beaten finalists, began their new Champions League campaign with a convincing 4-0 victory over Girondins Bordeaux in their Group A match at Stamford Bridge.
Headers by Frank Lampard and Joe Cole, in his 50th European match for the club, put Chelsea in control after 30 minutes and only wayward shooting by Lampard and Nicolas Anelka before the break prevented the London side winning by a bigger margin.
Florent Malouda brightened up an uneventful second half with Chelsea's third in the 82nd minute after fine approach work by Jon Obi Mikel and a Lampard backheel set up the French winger for his shot. Anelka made it 4-0 with the last kick of the game.
Bordeaux had been totally overrun in the first half and while they saw more of the ball in the second period the French side never remotely threatened Chelsea's superiority.
The other game in the group finished Roma 1 CFR Cluj 2.
Elsewhere in Group B Inter Milan beat Panathinaikos 2-0 in Greece, while Werder Bremen and Anorthosis finished scoreless.
In Group C Basel lost 2-1 at home to Shakhtar while Barcelona had a comfortable 3-1 home win over Sporting Lisbon.
