Barcelona held

LONDON: Defending champion Barcelona needed an equaliser from Zlatan Ibrahimovic to escape from Stuttgart with a 1-1 draw, while Michael Ciani headed Bordeaux to a 1-0 victory at Olympiakos in the first leg of the Champions League knockout round on Tuesday.

Barcelona fell behind after 25 minutes in Stuttgart, where coach Christian Gross has rejuvenated the German side with six wins in eight matches.

Cacau delivers

Cacau, who scored four goals in Saturday's 5-1 Bundesliga victory at Cologne, jumped higher than Carles Puyol to meet a cross from Timo Gebhart and scored with a powerful header at the far post.

Barca almost equalised in the 40th when goalkeeper Jens Lehmann failed to hold Lionel Messi's shot but the ball hit the post. However, Ibrahimovic came up with an away goal that gives Barca a slight edge in the second leg at home.

The lanky striker collected a header from Gerard Pique and, although his first shot was well blocked by Lehmann, the Swede followed up to prod the ball home.

Ciani turned home a free-kick from Yoann Gourcuff in first half injury time to give the French champion a useful lead to take home for the second leg, the defender heading downwards to beat goalkeeper Antonis Nikopolidis.

Last week, Manchester United won 3-2 at AC Milan, Lyon edged Real Madrid 1-0 at home, FC Porto beat Arsenal 2-1 and Bayern Munich gained a 2-1 advantage over Fiorentina.

The results: At Athens: Olympiakos 0 lost to Bordeaux 1 (Ciani 45+2). At Stuttgart: VfB Stuttgart 1 (Cacau 25) drew with Barcelona 1 (Ibrahimovic 52) . — Agencies