Liverpool and Atletico Madrid shared the honours last night in a game partially spoilt by a wholly unsatisfactory performance by the match officials.

After TV replays clearly showed that both Dimitar Berbatov's goals for Man Utd last night should have been disallowed, it was disappointing to learn that Robbie Keane had been in an offside position prior to scoring Liverpool's opening goal in the 14th minute (photo).

Keane should have made it two before the break, but out-foxed himself with an elaborate attempted back-heel when a simple tap-in would have sufficed to convert Gerrard's precise squared ball.

Maniche was a country mile on-side, but was denied an equaliser at the start of the second half by the incompetent match officials, who also got it wrong when they flagged Yossi Benayoun for what should have been Liverpool's second.

However, there was no hint of controversy for the eventual equaliser, which was scored in the 83rd minute by Simao Sabrosa in a swift counter-attacking move featuring Diego Forlán, who controlled a long ball hoofed out of defence before slipping the ball to the Portuguese left-winger, who beat Reina with a low slotted drive into the bottom left corner.

It was a completely different story in Basle, however, where Barcelona romped to a 0-5 victory that included a brace for young Bojan Krkic.

The win leaves Pep Guardiola's men three points clear at the top of Group C, and the only side left in the competition with maximum points after the first three rounds.

Wednesday, 22nd October
Basle 0-5 Barcelona
Shakhtar Donetsk 0-1 Sporting

PSV 2-0 Marseille
Atletico Madrid 1-1 Liverpool

Group C, points after 3 games
1 Barcelona  9
2 Sporting Lisbon  6
3 Shakhtar Donetsk  3
4 Basle  0

Group D, points after 3 games
1 Liverpool  7
2 Atletico Madrid  7
3 PSV Eindhoven  3
4 Marseille  0

Tuesday, 4th November
Barcelona vs Basle
Sporting vs Shakhtar Donetsk
Liverpool vs Atletico Madrid
Marseille vs PSV

Wednesday, 5th November
AaB vs Villarreal
Celtic vs Man Utd
BATE vs Zenit St Petersburg
Real Madrid vs Juventus

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