BEIRUT: Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas saw his side lose 3-1 away to Napoli in the first leg of the Champions League second round Tuesday.

With Arsenal and now Chelsea’s Champions League campaign in precarious position, English football looks likely to be without a representative in the quarterfinal of the Champions League for the first time since 1996.

An action-packed first half saw the two sides go into halftime at 2-1 with the game finely poised.

The home side applied heavy pressure early on with Chelsea struggling to adapt to Napoli’s unorthodox 3-4-3 formation. Napoli’s front line of Ezquiel Lavezzi, Edinson Cavani and Marek Hamsik constantly stretched the Chelsea back four, taking advantage of Jose Bosingwa’s injury and Gary Cahill’s naive positioning.

Twice Napoli went close through Cavani in the opening exchanges. With Branislav Ivanovic out of position at rightback, Cavani ghosted behind Cahill to pick up Lavezzi’s pass before running clear on the Chelsea goal. Fortunately for the visitors, Cavani could only hit his shot straight at Petr Cech, 5 minutes before the Uruguayan found himself in the same position but was called for offside.

Just before the half-hour mark, Chelsea went on a rare foray forward. Daniel Sturridge made a neat pass into the Napoli penalty area that was comically scooped into the air by Paolo Cannavaro , falling to the feet of Juan Mata who placed the ball into the Napoli net to give Chelsea a surprise 1-0 lead.

David Luiz would head just over the bar moments later before Napoli equalized through Lavezzi , who evaded Raul Meireles too easily before curling a beautiful effort around Cech after 38 minutes.

Just moments later, Ramires passed up the chance to give Chelsea back their lead when the Brazilian exploited space in the Napoli back line to open a clear scoring chance but the midfielder smashed his shot well over the bar.

A minute into stoppage time, Napoli took the lead when Gokhan Inler swung a deep cross onto the head of Cavani who poked the ball past Cech.

Chelsea made a much better impression, using their pace on the wings, in Sturridge and Florent Malouda, to great effect.

Napoli, however, have made a virtue of counter-attacking. And Chelsea have made a habit of farcical defending. Joker-in-chief Luiz made a pig’s ear of an innocuous long ball allowing Cavani to simply pass square to Lavezzi who took advantage of Cech’s dreadful positioning to fire in Napoli’s third goal.

In Moscow, a last-minute strike by CSKA Moscow newcomer Pontus Wernbloom snatched a 1-1 draw for the Russian side against Real Madrid in their Champions League last 16 first-leg match Tuesday.

Cristiano Ronaldo gave the visiting Spaniards a deserved 1-0 lead after 28 minutes, taking full advantage of a CSKA defensive mix-up and beating nervous-looking goalkeeper Sergei Chepchugov with a low volley into the far corner.

It was Ronaldo’s 17th goal in his 23rd Champions League game for Real and 32nd in total in Europe’s premier club competition.

He missed a chance to double the lead shortly after the restart, but this time Chepchugov, making his Champions League debut, averted the danger.

The home side sorely missed their first-choice keeper Igor Akinfeyev, who is still recovering following knee surgery.

Chepchugov made a fine double save early on, first stopping Gonzalo Higuain, who had just replaced injured Karim Benzema, then denying Sami Khedira from close range seconds later. Ronaldo had another chance late in the game but fired just wide of the post with a low shot from the edge of the box.

The visitors, who lost France forward Benzema just 15 minutes into the game after he appeared to pull a muscle while taking his first shot on goal, dominated for most of the match despite playing in sub-zero temperatures and on Luzhniki’s unfamiliar artificial pitch.

CSKA’s Ivory Coast striker Seydou Doumbia, who has scored five goals in five Champions League games this season, was kept off the ball for most of the match by Real’s tight defense.

The Russians rarely threatened until Sweden midfielder Wernbloom, who joined CSKA in January, beat Iker Casillas from 10 m following a goalmouth scramble in the last minute of added time, sending a record 70,000-strong home crowd wild.