Barcelona, Liverpool lose in Champions League

Barcelona, Liverpool lose in Champions League

LONDON, Oct. 21 -- Barcelona suffered a shock 2-1 defeat at home to Russian newcomers Rubin Kazan and Liverpool lost by the same score to visiting Lyon in the European Champions League on Tuesday.

Rubin Kazan, which are making debut at the Champions League, twice led at Camp Nou to beat a star-studded team containing Lionel Messi, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Andres Iniesta.

Adding to the high drama on the Matchday 3 in the group stage of the Champions League, Cesar Fabian Delgado scored in injury time at Anfield to hand Liverpool a fourth straight loss for the first time in 22 years.

Inter Milan trailed twice at home but the Italian champions salvaged a 2-2 draw with Dynamo Kiev through equalizers by Dejan Stankovic and Walter Samuel.

But Inter is now last in Group F after stretching its winless streak in Europe to six matches.

Elsewhere, Fiorentina won 4-3 at Debreceni and Arsenal drew 1-1at AZ Alkmaar.

Aleksandr Ryazantsev put Russian champions Rubin Kazan ahead after just 75 seconds by running onto a loose ball and smashing a shot beyond goalkeeper Victor Valdes.

Iniesta and Messi each had an appeal for a penalty turned down before Zlatan Ibrahimovic equalized for the Spanish champions three minutes after halftime.

But Alejandro Dominguez put Gokdeniz Karadeniz through into the area 25 minutes later and the latter one silenced the home crowd with an angled shot.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic came close to a second equalizer when he hit the crossbar with 11 minutes left and midfielder Yaya Toure hit the post with a header in the fourth minute of injury time.

Rubin, Barcelona and Dynamo Kiev all have four points from three games in Group F. Inter has three points.

Liverpool's troubled season continued when it was beaten by Lyon and lost captain Steven Gerrard to a groin injury that could keep him out of Sunday's Premier League match against Manchester United.

Yossi Benayoun had put the five-time champions ahead four minutes before halftime but an injury-hit home side conceded to Maxime Gonalons midway through the second half and was then hit by a counterattack in injury time.

Sidney Govou sent a pass right across the goalmouth and, with the home defense hesitating, Cesar Fabian Delgado arrived at the far post to score the winner.

Liverpool has three points from three Group E matches, six fewer than ;leader Lyon and three fewer than Fiorentina, which recovered from conceding a second-minute goal to win 4-3 at Debreceni.

Sevilla went five points clear at the top of Group G with a straightforward 3-1 win at Stuttgart, which only scored in the 74th at 3-0 down.

The Spanish team has a maximum nine points. Next is Unirea Urziceni, which benefited from two own goals to win 4-1 at Rangers.

Rangers had led through a second-minute own goal by Ricardo Vilana, but the Romanian team fought back with Marius Bilasco and Pablo Brandan scoring either side of own goals by Kyle Lafferty and Lee McCulloch.

The win moved Unirea three points ahead of the Scottish champions in its first Champions League season.

Arsenal's lead in Group H was cut to a single point after Mendes da Silva scored in the third minute of injury time to earn AZ a draw.

Cesc Fabregas had put the Gunners ahead in the 36th from a pass by Robin van Persie but Mendes da Silva volleyed from close range to earn his team a second point of the season.

Olympiakos beat Standard Liege 2-1 in the other game to move upto six points.