Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho sounded a note of caution after the comfortable 3-1 victory over Levski Sofia in their Champions League match on Wednesday.

But the place to be on the night was Anfield, where Liverpool led Galatasaray 3-0 early in the second half before squeezing home 3-2 in a heart-stopping finale.

Mourinho was delighted with Didier Drogba's hat-trick but warned: "We need to improve because the last 15 minutes were disappointing. We should have played better in the closing stages and scored more goals with Arjen Robben and Salomon Kalou on the pitch."

The boss of the mega-rich English champions said he'd keep goal-shy Andriy Shevchenko in the starting line-up and also praised 17-year-old Jon Obi Mikel's performance in his first start.

"Mikel was absolutely fantastic, he makes everything look so easy with the ball at his feet," said Mourinho. "It was a pity he got booked and I took him off because I didn't want us reduced to 10 men."

Levski manager Stanimir Stoilov admitted there was a huge gulf in quality between the sides. "We lack the class and the experience to slug it out with the likes of Chelsea and Barcelona," he admitted. The Bulgarians previously lost 5-0 to the Spaniards.

"They demonstrated their high quality while we made some silly mistakes that led to their goals.''

At Anfield, two goals by lanky England striker Peter Crouch - one a spectacular scissor kick - and a Luis Garcia header gave Liverpool a seemingly unassailable lead early in the second half -- only for Galatasaray substitute Umit Karan to score twice in six minutes with a couple of headers.

Relieved Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez, whose side are top of Group C with four points, said: "Crouch's goal was amazing. The movement was good and from this goal you can see he is a very good player.''

He added: "That was a very difficult game, it could have been 4-0 but then they decided to play with two strikers and we couldn't finish it. The first half was fantastic, we had good crosses and the goals. But sometimes when you go too high you leave a space. I was worried at the end but it's three more points."

Galatasaray boss Erik Gerets admitted his players were in tears after failing to salvage a draw. We are crying, we are unhappy," he said. "But I am angry because we had too many mistakes from too many important players tonight.

"At the start we forgot to play football because we were too impressed with the opponent. We changed a couple of things at halftime but we made a big mistake on the third goal and only when the game was over we started to play football."

Holders Barcelona left it late to snatch a 1-1 draw at Werder Bremen while Inter Milan had two men sent off as they slumped to their second consecutive defeat, 2-0 against Bayern Munich at San Siro. Serie A rivals AS Roma went down 2-1 at Valencia.

Meanwhile, the first Champions League match on an artificial pitch finished with Spartak Moscow drawing 1-1 at home to Sporting Lisbon. Ukraine's Shakhtar Donetsk drew 2-2 with Olympiakos Piraeus of Greece.

It was not a happy night for Barca, who trailed from a 56th-minute own goal by captain Carles Puyol, and then lost Cameroon striker Samuel Eto'o with a potentially serious knee injury. Spanish media quoted a team doctor as saying the Cameroon striker could be out for between two and three months.

Finn Mika Vaeyrynen's lone goal was enough for PSV Eindhoven to beat Girondins Bordeaux 1-0, though the Dutch side had to play the last five minutes with 10 men after defender Michael Lamey was red-carded.

Things are clearly not working out for Serie A leaders Inter, who had Sweden striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Italy defender Fabio Grosso sent off. Late strikes by Claudio Pizarro and Lukas Podolski secured the points for the Bundesliga champions in Group B, which Bayern lead with six points.

First half goals from Miguel Angel Angulo and David Villa, either side of a Francesco Totti penalty, gave Valencia their second successive victory and top slot in Group D.