Champions League Wednesday Wrap

Wednesday treated us to an extraordinary night of Champions League football that was littered with upsets.

It proved to be a disastrous night for English sides as Manchester City lost 3-1 away to Ajax and Arsenal lost 2-0 at home to Schalke.

Some of Europe's best players shone though, including Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Cristiano Ronaldo, with both stars finding the back of the net.

Here is a comprehensive review of all the action.

Zenit 1-0 Anderlecht

Zenit secured a vital win at home to Anderlecht to close to within one point of Milan.

Aleksandr Kerzhakov slotted home a late penalty to provide Luciano Spaletti with a crucial win that boosts their hopes of ousting the Rossoneri from the second qualification spot.

Hulk and Kerzhakov seemed to publicly dispute many incidents throughout the match and appeared to refuse passing to each other.

Arsenal 0-2 Schalke

Arsenal were humiliated at home to Schalke, succumbing 2-0 to the German side who were buoyed by victory over fierce rivals Borussia Dortmund at the weekend. This was the Gunners' first home loss in the group stages for nine years.

Klaas-Jan Huntelaar latched onto a defensive lapse by Per Mertesacker, finishing powerfully past Vito Mannone with a half-volley.

The lively Jefferson Farfan sped down the right wing on countless occasions—exposing the totally inept Andre Santos—and was eventually rewarded when he crossed for Ibrahim Affelay to score a tap-in.

Arsenal could only register one shot on target and the crowd turned nasty towards the end, sarcastically cheering the woeful Gervinho after being booking for diving. The match left a host of problems for Arsene Wenger to sort out.

Porto 3-2 Dynamo Kiev

Porto won a thriller at the Estadio Dragao to secure maximum points from their opening three matches.

The Dragoes won 3-2 against Dynamo Kiev thanks to a Jackson Martinez brace.

Silvestre Varela opened the scoring with an absolute stunner before Oleh Husyev equalised for the Ukrainians.

The visitors thought they had taken a point from the match when Brown Ideye levelled again in the second half after Martinez had scored his first.

The Colombian scored again, though, ensuring a six-point advantage over third place. It should prove enough to qualify with three matches remaining.

Dinamo Zagreb 0-2 PSG

PSG won emphatically in Zagreb on Wednesday night, thrashing Dinamo 2-0 to open up a three point gap between themselves and third place in the table.

Carlo Ancelotti's men stormed into an early lead as Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Jeremy Menez handed the Parisiens a two-goal lead before the break.

The Croatians could not muster a second-half comeback and PSG kept close to Porto at the top of the group.

Montpellier 1-2 Olympiakos

Montpellier squandered a lead at home to Olympiakos, which all but ended the Ligue 1 side's chances of qualifying  from the group stage.

Gaetan Charbonnier gave La Paillade the lead in the first half, but the Greek champions stole the points late on with goals from Vassilis Torosidis and Konstantinos Mitroglu.

Malaga 1-0 Milan

Malaga continue to impress on their Champions League debut, winning all three of their group matches to put themselves into pole position for the knock-out phase of the competition.

Joaquin finished with a delightful side-foot volley to send La Rosaleda into raptures.

The Spaniard missed a penalty in the first half, striking the ball onto the bar, which seemed to enforce some justice after Kevin Constant was harshly judged to have shoved Jesus Gamez.

Milan's misery continues though—despite radically altering their formation to a 3-4-3—with Massimiliano Allegri's future hanging in the balance.

Ajax 3-1 Manchester City

Manchester City's hopes of qualifying from the group stages of the Champions League seem to have been ended for a second successive season.

Roberto Mancini has come under criticism for selecting a three-man defence, which seems to have confused his players.

The predicament is now more complicated than last season even, with maximum points from the last three matches only good enough to finish with 10 points, a total that failed to ensure qualification last season.

Samir Nasri opened the scoring, but City's night went downhill from there, conceding three times to ensure they finished the night at the bottom of the group.

Siem De Jong's vicious half-volley, Nikolas Moisander's free header and a deflected Christian Eriksen shot were enough to give De Godenzonen a well-deserved victory.

Borussia Dortmund 2-1 Real Madrid

Borussia Dortmund seem to have managed to figure out how this Champions League malarkey works.

Die Borussen failed to qualify last season, but with seven points from three matches they top the group ahead of Real Madrid and Manchester City.

Robert Lewandowski opened the scoring with a powerful finish after a Pepe blunder, but Cristiano Ronaldo soon replied with a lovely lobbed finish after Roman Weidenfeller had rushed out of his goal prematurely.

A Marcel Schmelzer strike sealed the points, although Lewandowski tried to claim that he made the faintest of touches. It provided the shock of the week and all but guaranteed qualification for the next round.