Chelsea’s winning start to the season suffered a stumble after Jose Mourinho’s side was held to a 1-1 draw by Schalke 04 in a UEFA Champions League match at Stamford Bridge while Gerard Pique’s first half goal was enough to give Barcelona victory over Cypriot champions APOEL Nicosia in the Nou Camp on Wednesday night.
Didier Drogba was handed his first start since returning to Chelsea, in place of in-form Spanish striker Diego Costa starting on the bench days after scoring his first hattrick for the Blues against Swansea City in the Premier League.
The Ivorian striker was a headache for the Schalke defence early on, but Chelsea’s goal came from another new face at the Bridge, with Fabregas getting on to a neat return pass from Eden Hazard to coolly slot past Schalke goalkeeper Fahrmann in the 11th minute.
Both sides got a glimpse of goal afterwards but resolute defending and poor finishing saw scores remain in Chelsea’s favour, with the best chance of another goal in the first half falling to Kevin-Prince Boateng whose rasping long range effort was palmed out for a cornerkick by Thibaut Courtois in the Chelsea goal.
Chelsea maintained its dominance of the encounter in the second period and came close to making it 2-0 through Drogba, whose effort in the 61st minute dragged just wide of goal after being set up by a Hazard pass over the top of the Schalke defence.
That missed chance would haunt the Blues as the visitors found a way back into the match a minute later when Fabregas was dispossessed in midfield, with Julian Draxler finding Huntelaar who cut in before striking into the bottom corner.
Huntelaar’s goal prompted Mourinho to bring on Costa and Loic Remy for the closing 20 minutes, with the latter seeing a goal-bound effort cleared off the line two minutes after coming on, before he and Hazard had further efforts kept out by the Schalke goalkeeper as Schalke held on to claim a hard-earned draw from London.
The result at Stamford Bridge was mirrored in Slovenia where Sporting Lisbon was held to a 1-1 draw by NK Maribor, with on-loan Manchester United midfielder Nani putting Sporting ahead 10 minutes from time only for Luka Zahovic to equalise for the home side in stoppage time.
Elsewhere in the Champions League, a 27th minute header by Pique was enough for Barcelona in the 1-0 win over APOEL Nicosia in a Group F match, with Paris St. Germain holding Ajax to a 1-1 draw in the other Group F encounter played at the Amsterdam Arena.
Uruguay striker Edinson Cavani had given the French champions a 14th minute lead, turning in a rebound of Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s initial effort while Lasse Schoene equalised for Ajax with a well struck freekick in the 74th minute before being denied by the PSG crossbar two minutes later from another freekick.