Champions League Results 2013-14: Clubs That Received Biggest Boost Tuesday

The road to Lisbon, Portugal started Tuesday.

The Champions League has technically been going on for a few months, with all of the various playoff rounds. This is when the UCL really starts, though.

While the group stage lacks the excitement of the knockout stages, fans are still treated to entertaining matches and glamorous matchups.

Here's the full list of results from Tuesday's Champions League action, followed by the four clubs that helped themselves the most. 

Manchester United

David Moyes isn't under threat of getting sacked anytime soon, but there is certainly a segment of fans who remain skeptical as to his whether he can replace Sir Alex Ferguson.

A 4-2 win over Bayer Leverkusen will help to keep those critics at bay. Manchester United looked as good as they have all season. Leverkusen are third in the Bundesliga table, and yet, United made it look very easy. They could have scored five or six goals.

Wayne Rooney was exceptional, scoring twice and assisting on Antonio Valencia's goal. He seems fully recovered from that head injury that had sidelined him a few weeks ago. In addition, he doesn't seem to be holding a grudge after his move to Chelsea fell through.

Manchester United looked far and away the best side in Group A. Plus, the earlier Moyes can demonstrate he can handle the Champions League, the better.

Shakhtar Donetsk

Perhaps the bigger surprise in Group A was Shakhtar Donetsk's 2-0 win over Real Sociedad. Despite losing midfielder Asier Illarramendi and manager Philippe Montanier, the Spanish side was able to dominate Lyon in the final playoff before the group stage.

Shakhtar has been capable of beating top clubs in Ukraine, but if they can go on the road and pick up points, this is a very dangerous club.

The reigning Ukrainian champions have a wealth of young Brazilian talent. It's a transfer policy that has paid massive dividends and one they continued by bringing in Bernard, Wellington Nem, Fred and Fernando in this season.

Fernandinho and Henrik Mkhitaryan were very good players, but Shakhtar demonstrated in their win over Sociedad that they're ready for a run through the Champions League.

FC Copenhagen

Nobody will be expecting FC Copenhagen to advance to the knockout stage. In fact, they still look the most likely candidates to finish bottom of the group.

With a 1-1 draw against Juventus, the Danish club started off group play extremely well and got at least one great result in front of their home fans. Any points you can take off the Italian champions are a plus. Copenhagen withstood a continuous barrage from Juventus but held out well.

Johan Wiland in particular was great. He stepped up and made key saves at almost every opportunity. When you are the underdogs in a match, you need your goalkeeper to play well in order to stay in the match. That's exactly what happened, as Wiland stood on his head.

Real Madrid

Maybe Carlo Ancelotti can make this work after all. Following the transfer of Gareth Bale, many fans and pundits were wondering if it was one too many cooks in the kitchen, much as it was back in the Galacticos days.

With a 6-1 demolition of Galatasaray, Real Madrid look like there's not going to be any problems on the pitch anytime soon. Cristiano Ronaldo had a hat-trick, and Karim Benzema netted a brace. Bale came on as a sub in the second half and helped to set up one of Ronaldo's three goals.

Isco was also pulling the strings in midfield. It's important that he can start his Madrid career strong, as plenty are wondering if it was smart to sell Mesut Ozil to Arsenal.

After a performance like this from Madrid, the rest of Europe is on notice.