Paris, Sept 18: Arsenal and Celtic suffered a nightmare start to their European champions league campaigns on Wednesday as their hopes of joining Manchester United, Chelsea and Rangers in the British winners' circle were brought to a shuddering halt. Arsenal, who often shine brightly in the premier ship only to suffer a major power cut in Europe, were completely outclassed by Inter Milan losing 3-0 at Highbury while Celtic threw away a 1-0 lead to lose 2-1 at Bayern Munich for whom Roy Makaay grabbed both goals.
The defeats were particularly disappointing as they came just 24 hours after united had crushed Panathinaikos 5-0, Chelsea had pulled off a battling 1-0 win at Sparta Prague while rangers came back from a goal down to see off Stuttgart 2-1 at Ibrox.
Elsewhere yesterday, last year's runners-up Juventus beat Galatasaray 2-1 while there was a double celebration for France with Lyon beating Anderlecht 1-0 and Monaco enjoying an impressive 2-1 reward from their trip to PSV Eindhoven.
But it was at Highbury where the most intense inquisition was being carried out as Arsenal's hopes of reaching the knockout stages suffered a huge setback.
"It's very disappointing because we started very brightly but we made the wrong decisions in the box," said arsenal coach Arsene Wenger.
"We were a bit naive on the goals. It is difficult to say what went wrong, it is painful enough to lose."
By contrast, Inter coach Hector Cuper was delighted with his team's impressive performance.

Bureau Report