Mourinho, Ranieri And Larsson Make Winning Starts For New Clubs

PARIS (AFP) - Jose Mourinho started out his latest Champions League campaign as he finished the last one - a winner - as his new club Chelsea thrashed French strugglers Paris Saint Germain 3-0 in their opening clash of the tournament.
His former club FC Porto did not enjoy a winning start as the drain of their best players during the summer took its toll and they could only eke out a 0-0 draw at home to CSKA Moscow.
However the man he replaced as Chelsea boss Claudio Ranieri did enjoy a winning start to his campaign as Valencia eased to a 2-0 success over Anderlecht, the Belgian side continuing their dreadful away run in European competition which has seen them win just once in 18 trips abroad.
While Ranieri will have to wait till the knockout stages to meet his own club, provided both go through their groups, there was no such wait for Henrik Larsson as he came off the bench for Barcelona to put his old team Celtic to the sword scoring the last in the 3-1 victory.
The other British side in action on Tuesday, Arsenal, scraped an unconvincing 1-0 win over Dutch side PSV Eindhoven through an own goal by Alex.
Both the Milan clubs enjoyed victories, though AC Milan had a tougher fight than they probably envisaged against Ukrainian outfit Shakhtar Donetsk before a late Clarence Seedorf goal gave them a 1-0 victory in Donetsk.
Inter were scarcely more convincing as they beat Werder Bremen 2-0 thanks to a double by Brazilian striker Adriano, though the Germans were down to 10-men for the majority of the match.
Chelsea, though, looked a different side under the auspices of Mourinho than they had last year with Ranieri in charge and once they went in front thanks to John Terry's header just before the half hour mark there was no stopping them against a side without a win this season.
Didier Drogba's strikes - one apiece in each half - made a nonsense of PSG coach Vahid Halilhodzic's refusal to have a specific plan to stop the Ivory Coast star and left PSG without a win this season.
Drogba added his two to the opener from Terry's which was helped hugely by a blunder from PSG goalkeeper Lionel Letizi, who charged out to try and gather a corner but missed it completely.
"The goals are a bonus for me as it gives me confidence for the matches coming up but the result was more important," said Drogba, who signed from UEFA Cup finalists Marseille in the summer.
"Once we got into the match there was only going to be one winner and as for me making hay out of scoring it was because they were booing me as I am a former Marseille player and they don't like that one bit."
Mourinho was ecstatic at the display.
"I am delighted as the team dominated from the word go and every single player was outstanding," he purred.
"As for Drogba it was great that he could come back to a French stadium and score two goals."
Halilhodzic was disgusted with the performance.
"I am ashamed, the supporters deserved more than that," said the Bosnian.
PSG's hardpressed president Francis Graille drew some comfort from the first half hour of play but admitted that they had been too fragile.
"We didn't have the mental strength to fight back and that is something we will have to work hard on in the coming days," he said.
Porto's new Spanish coach Victor Fernandez said the team, which includes six new faces signed to fill the gaps left by the departure of Deco, Ricardo Carvalho and Paulo Ferreira in the off-season, had improved since its 1-1 away draw against Braga in the opening match of the Portuguese season.
"I am not disappointed. There is disappointment with the final result but I am pleased with the progress which the team has made," he said.
"We have improved greatly in comparison to the game with Braga, we dominated, we created more opportunities to score and we pushed CSKA back. All that was missing was a goal," added Fernandez, who will face Chelsea next up.
Inter Milan coach Roberto Mancini said his team would have to be more clinical in two weeks time when they travel to Belgium to face Anderlecht as they laboured to victory over Bremen, whose central defender Valerien Ismael was sent off in the fifth minute.
"The sending-off certainly gave us a hand, but we created the chance in the first place and continued to create plenty of chances after that," he said.
"But football can be strange and sometimes when you don't kill off teams, you get punished. Next time we will have to be more clinical."
Bremen coach Thomas Schaaf said it was always going to be an uphill struggle after Ismael's dismissal.
"After the sending-off it was very difficult, but I was very happy with the way the team reacted," he said.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger was pleased that despite the unimpressive scoreline they had exorcised the ghost of last season's opening 3-0 humbling by Inter Milan.
"I feel we had a good first half and played very well against a good team. We are not used to winning 1-0 but it's a result I'm pleased with. I'm convinced the trauma of last season's start was still in our heads tonight," he said.
"When we did not find our flow I felt we showed our experience and maturity and we did not make a big mistake."
Similarly Mourinho, Ranieri and Larsson didn't make a mistake and their next opponents have been warned that despite the changes of club they remain as effective as ever.