MATIC DESTROYS OLD RIVALS: CHELSEA 1 SPORTING LISBON 0

Nemanja Matic scored on his return to Lisbon to earn Chelsea a 1-0 UEFA Champions League win over Sporting on Tuesday.

The former Benfica man spent three years in the Portuguese capital with Sporting’s great rivals before returning to Chelsea in January.

And the Serbia international scored the only goal of the Group G encounter when he headed home in the 34th minute.

Matic found the net in a half dominated by the visitors, but the home side proved more competitive after the break to leave the result in doubt up until the final whistle.

The result sees Chelsea bounce back from their matchday one draw with Schalke at Stamford Bridge, while Sporting, who had previously lost just one of nine home fixtures against English opposition, will rue the end of an unbeaten run at Estadio Jose Alvalade that stretched to 16 matches in European competition.

Having previously claimed in-form frontman Diego Costa was incapable of playing multiple matches in a week, Jose Mourinho named the Spain international in his starting XI for the second time in four days, while captain John Terry made his 100th Champions League outing.

UCL Results:

CSKA Moscow    0 – 1      Bayern Munich

Manchester City               1 – 1      Roma

APOEL Nicosia    1 – 1      Ajax

Paris Saint Germain          3 – 2      Barcelona

Schalke 04           1 – 1      Maribor

Sporting CP         0 – 1      Chelsea

BATE Borisov      2 – 1      Athletic Bilbao

Shakhtar Donetsk             2 – 2      FC Porto