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Most favorites win in busy, colorful European Champions League action

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Soccer’s European Champions League is up and running again, and that means coaches suddenly have rediscovered the art of the memorable quotation.

On Wednesday, it was Domingos Paciencia, the coach of Portugal’s Braga, who emerged as the clear winner in that regard with his post-match comments after Braga had been thrashed, 6-0, by Arsenal in London.

“We made so many mistakes,” Paciencia said. “It’s very hard to play the game as badly as we have done tonight . . . even finishing at halftime would have been a bad experience.

“We could not have played any worse. . . . It was a night to forget.”

Arsenal led, 3-0, after 45 minutes en route to an emphatic victory at the Emirates Stadium. Spain’s Cesc Fabregas and Mexico’s Carlos Vela each scored a pair of goals.

“You don’t need replays tonight to see that we can be very creative and very fast,” said Arsenal Coach Arsene Wenger.

The team has never won the Champions League, the closest it has come being the runner-up spot behind Barcelona in 2006, but Wenger lives in hope.

“We haven’t won it,” he said, and “as long as we haven’t, people will question us. You win it with quality; it’s as simple as that.”

Chelsea, a runner-up in 2008 but also never a winner, believes it has sufficient quality this season. On Wednesday, Coach Carlo Ancelotti’s squad routed Zilina, 4-1, on the road in Slovakia, with Nicolas Anelka grabbing two first-half goals.

“We had chances, but the disparity was there,” said Zilina Coach Pavel Hapal. “It was about players’ speed, combination, strength. This was the reason” for the loss.

London will stage the Champions League final in May, so Arsenal and Chelsea, plus a third London club, Tottenham Hotspur, have added incentive to make it that far.

Meanwhile, nine-time champion Real Madrid began its campaign in less than convincing fashion, defeating Ajax Amsterdam, 2-0, in Madrid, where an own goal off a Xabi Alonso corner kick and a strike by Gonzalo Higuain were enough.

Jose Mourinho, who coached Inter Milan to the trophy last season before jumping ship and joining Real, was visibly angry on the sideline at all the squandered scoring chances, but was calm once the victory had been secured.

“I would be worried . . . if [goalkeeper Iker] Casillas had been the best player on the pitch,” he said, “but he has hardly touched the ball in the last three matches.

“The goal will come. The best thing to do is nothing. Let them play. It’s their natural habitat. One day a team will pay for it.”

The team with the second-most European titles is AC Milan, and it got its Champions League run off to a promising start with a 2-0 win over Auxerre as Zlatan Ibrahimovic, recently acquired on loan from Barcelona, scored both goals.

“It’s difficult to swallow,” said Auxerre Coach Jean Fernandez, whose in-awe players were spotted taking photographs of the San Siro stadium before the kickoff. “We knew before the match that Milan had the better players.”

Bayern Munich, last season’s runner-up, made a winning start in Germany, where goals in the final quarter-hour by Thomas Mueller and Miroslav Klose earned Coach Louis van Gaal’s team a 2-0 victory over AS Roma.

Afterward, Van Gaal all but apologized for the lackluster display.

“That is our game,” he said. “The fans need to realize that it takes time for us to make the opponents tired. It’s not always fantastic, just passing the ball around, but that’s how you beat a defensive team.”

In the day’s only real upset, France’s Olympique Marseille gave up an own goal and was beaten, 1-0, at home by Spartak Moscow after wasting numerous clear-cut chances.

“When you dominate and you can’t score, you’re never safe,” said Marseille Coach Didier Deschamps.

Also on Wednesday, Romania’s CFR Cluj defeated FC Basel of Switzerland, 2-1, in Romania and Shakhtar Donetsk of Ukraine edged Partizan Belgrade of Serbia, 1-0, in Ukraine.

Champions League play resumes for the 32 teams in the group stage Sept. 28.

grahame.jones@latimes.com

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