Barca sweat it

Barcelona, missing the mercurial talent of the injured Lionel Messi, laboured to a 1-0 win in their Group H Champions League game against 10-man Celtic in Glasgow last night.

The only goal came after 76 minutes when Neymar swept the ball out to substitute Alexis Sanchez on the right. His back-post cross was headed home by the unmarked Cesc Fabregas.

By then Celtic were down to 10 men, having had Scott Brown dismissed just before the hour mark for catching Neymar in the back with his boot after the Brazilian went down in a challenge.

In an absorbing contest of artistry against industry at an electric Parkhead Stadium, Barcelona, as expected, dominated possession but created little in a match of few chances.

Celtic's best chances came after Brown's sending off and before Barca scored when James Forrest forced a superb diving save out of Victor Valdes and Charlie Mulgrew headed wide of an open goal from the resulting corner.

Near the end, Celtic keeper Fraser Forster produced three fine saves to keep Barca at bay, the first a double effort from Neymar and Sanchez.

The win gives Barcelona a maximum six points from two games and leaves Celtic still looking for their first point.

While Mesut Ozil bewitched Napoli to conjure up a 2-0 Champions League win for Arsenal and end the Italian side's unbeaten start to the season.

The Germany midfielder scored the opening goal - his first for Arsenal - with a superb left-foot effort from the edge of the penalty area after eight minutes. He also set up Olivier Giroud for Arsenal's second.

Arsenal's second win after their 2-1 success in Marseille put them on six points in Group F alongside Borussia Dortmund, who beat Marseille 3-0 last night. Arsenal and Dortmund meet in the next two rounds of games.

The home side were further boosted by the failure of Napoli striker Gonzalo Higuain, an Arsenal target during the summer transfer window, to recover from a calf injury.

Arsenal dominated possession from the kick-off and the opening goal followed two flashes of individual skill, first by OlivierGiroud to put Aaron Ramsey in space down the right and then from Ozil.

Ozil opened up his body to hit Ramsey's cross first time past Pepe Reina from 18m with all the grace, timing and power of a Roger Federer forehand winner.

And it was no surprise when Ozil profited from a poor Napoli throw-in near the Italians' goal line to race through on the right and set up Giroud for a tap-in from 5m.

Rafael Benitez's side showed more cohesion in the second half but the threat to Wojciech Szczesny's goal was largely restricted to shots from distance.

Brazil midfielder Ramires scored twice as Chelsea got their Champions League Group E campaign back on track with a convincing 4-0 win over Steaua Bucharest at the National Arena.

Slick-passing Chelsea dominated from start to finish and could have won by a bigger margin.

The visitors went ahead in the 20th minute when Ramires lifted the ball over the goalkeeper from 3m and they made it 2-0 with an own goal from Daniel Georgievski just before halftime.

Ramires made it 3-0 with a thumping finish soon after the interval after the dangerous Andre Schurrle surged down the left and found Oscar who teed up his fellow countryman.

Frank Lampard completed the rout with a low shot into the corner from 18m after good work by substitute Willian on the 90th minute.

Chelsea have three points from two games in the group while Steaua are bottom on zero.

Borussia Dortmund cruised past Olympique Marseille 3-0 with two goals from forward Robert Lewandowski to get their Champions League campaign back on track after an opening Group F defeat.

Mario Balotelli scored a penalty in the fourth minute of added time to earn AC Milan a 1-1 draw with Ajax at the Amsterdam Arena in Champions League Group H on Tuesday.