Holders Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain were the biggest winners in the Champions League as Real Madrid and both Manchester clubs also recorded important victories.
Frenchman Franck Ribery scored a brace yesterdays, including one from the penalty spot, while David Alaba, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Mario Goetze were also on target as Pep Guardiola's Bayern romped to a 5-0 home win against Czech champions Viktoria Pilsen, their eighth consecutive win in the competition.
The German outfit are three points clear at the top of Group D from Manchester City, the Premier League club who claimed a potentially crucial 2-1 win at CSKA Moscow earlier in the day.
City had fallen behind on a difficult pitch at the Arena Khimki when Zoran Tosic lobbed Joe Hart, but Sergio Aguero netted twice before the interval to turn the game on its head.
"It is an important win," City manager Manuel Pellegrini said after the game. "Now we have to play the next two games at home. I told the players that we had to make sure we didn't lose this one. We are not in the next round yet but this was an important step."
That game was also marred by reports of racist chanting from the home sections of the stadium directed towards City's Ivorian midfielder Yaya Toure.
"It is unbelievable and very, very sad. We want to stop that and UEFA have to be strong, maybe close the stadium," Toure said.
PSG recorded their biggest European away win as they took Anderlecht apart in Brussels, Zlatan Ibrahimovic scoring four times and Edinson Cavani once in a 5-0 victory.
Ibrahimovic's evening featured a hat-trick in the space of 19 first-half minutes, with his third goal a ferocious volley from 30 yards that brought many of the home supporters to their feet. And he now has nine goals in his last four games in all competitions.
"Scoring four goals in a game doesn't happen every day," said Ibrahimovic, who was touched at seeing the Anderlecht fans applaud his marvellous third goal.
"It was incredible, fantastic. I had goose pimples. It is a great honour.
