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By Martyn Herman
LONDON, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Holders AC Milan took the first step on the long road to Moscow when they opened their Champions League campaign with a 2-1 victory over Benfica on Tuesday.
The opening batch of fixtures in the 2007-08 competition proved a milestone for two of Europe's most prolific strikers.
In the San Siro Milan's Filippo Inzaghi took his goal tally in European club football to 60 with his side's second goal after Andrea Pirlo had opened the scoring in Group D.
Inzaghi's former Milan team mate Andriy Shevchenko also hit the 60 mark when he scored the equaliser for Chelsea in a frustrating 1-1 home draw with Rosenborg Trondheim in Group B.
Only Gerd Mueller (62) stands above them in the European scoring charts.
Real Madrid's Raul is just one goal behind Inzaghi and Shevchenko after heading his side's first goal in a 2-1 Group C victory for the nine-times champions at home to Werder Bremen.
Liverpool, beaten by Milan in last season's final, began with a 1-1 draw in Porto while the other match in Group A ended in a 2-0 home victory for Olympique Marseille against Besiktas.
Shakhtar Donetsk striker Brandao had the honour of scoring the first goal of the group phase of this season's competition, pouncing after five minutes to put his side on the way to a 2-0 home win over Celtic and above Milan at the top of Group D.
Elsewhere, Schalke's hopes of surviving the groups stages for the first time took a knock when they lost at home to Valencia. Lazio drew 1-1 in Greece against Olympiakos Piraeus in a match played behind closed doors because of crowd trouble in a match last season.
