Hamburg  - Former champions Bayern Munich and Liverpool on Wednesday took a giant step towards the quarter-finals of the Champions League by winning their first leg round of the last 16 matches away from home.

The German champions made history with the highest-ever away victory in the Champions League by trouncing Sporting Lisbon 5-0, while Liverpool managed a 1-0 victory at Real Madrid.

There was also a victory on the night for Chelsea, who beat Juventus 1-0, while the final game between Villarreal and Panathinaikos ended in a 1-1 draw.

Bayern, who went into the game on the back of a miserable start to the second half of the Bundesliga side and lost 2-1 at home to Cologne on the weekend, started much stronger in Lisbon.

Although they still had problems creating chances in the first half, their defence stood tall and somewhat against the run of play Franck Ribery gave the visitors the lead three minutes from the break after claiming the ball close to the centre line.

The French international ran through the Sporting half, evaded two markers and then waved Italian striker Luca Toni away, opting instead himself to shoot and he made no mistake, slotting past Sporting goalkeeper Tiago.

Bayern added a second in the 57th minute when Germany striker Miroslav Klose stole his way past his marker and pushed a long cross from Massimo Oddo over the goalline. As Toni just touched the ball with his head before it came to Klose, the scorer was in an offside position, but referee Bertrand Layec gave the goal.

Worse was to follow for Sporting as Fabio Rochemback brought down Germany defender Philipp Lahm in the area just five minutes later and Ribery made no mistake from the spot to make it 3-0.

Late in the game Toni added two more with Ribery providing the assists in both cases to totally humiliate the home side.

In London Chelsea stand-in coach Guus Hiddink, who on Saturday took the Blues to victory against Aston Villa in his first game in charge, sent an attacking formation onto the field against Juventus.

It took the home side just 12 minutes to open the scoring when Salomon Kalou split the Juventus defence and found Didier Drogba in space and the Cote d'Ivoire international made no mistake, beating Gianluigi Buffon from close range.

Surprisingly, Chelsea then allowed Juventus back into the game and could easily have conceded an equalizer, but somehow held on for their 1-0 victory.

The eagerly awaited clash between former winners Real Madrid and Liverpool failed to live up to its top-billing as neither side managed to find any way through their opponent's compact defence.

It was only late in the second half that Liverpool finally managed the breakthrough when Israeli international Yossi Benayoun headed in the only goal of the match from an Alvaro Arbeloa free-kick.

The other Spanish side in action on the night, Villarreal, enjoyed most of the play against Greek visitors Panathinaikos, but failed to find the back of the net in the first half.

They were made to pay for their misses in the second half as Georgios Karagounis beat goalkeeper Diego Lopez with a long-range speculative shot on the hour to give Panathinaikos the lead.

After the break Villarreal continued going forward in search of an equalizer and their chance came in the 66th minute when Robert Pires was brought down by Jakub Wawrzyniak and Austrian referee Konrad Plautz pointed to the spot, from where Giuseppe Rossi made no mistake.

On Tuesday Arsenal was the only side to win their match as they beat AS Roma 1-0. Manchester United played to a goalless draw against Inter Milan, while Atletico Madrid managed no better than a 2-2 against former champions Porto.

Olympique Lyon drew 1-1 with Barcelona. (dpa)