Knockouts booked for Bayern, Brugge, and Napoli.
Nobody would’ve bet against them, but Bayern Munich comfortably dispatched Viktoria Plzen away 4-2, putting them through to the knockout stage of the Champions League, dismantling the champions of the Czech Republic after a simply dominant first 45 minutes.
Their convincing win confirms an early exit for Viktoria Plzen, especially when taking Barcelona’s 3-3 draw with Internazionale into account – the numbers and permutations meaning the Czech’s will not be progressing any further. The German giants have now extended their own record by going 32 group matches undefeated in the UEFA Champions League.
It was just 10 minutes into the game when the terrifyingly in-form Sadio Mané put the cherry on top of a sumptuous one-two with Leon Goretzka, showing composure and style in the 18-yard area before putting the ball in the back of the net. Mané, who as of last week is officially the second best player in the world according to the Ballon d’Or rankings, is probably one of the safest bets in the world right now if you want to make some cash off of goal involvement odds.
Then on to the veteran Thomas Müller who doubled their lead, before Goretzka netted two goals of his own to cap off the scoring for Bayern. Adam Vlkanova and Jan Kliment put a veneer of respectability on the score by putting two goals in for Viktoria Plzen but, after having four battered past you in under 45 minutes, you’re going to have to do a lot more than that.
Serie A leaders Napoli aren’t missing former centre back and captain Kalidou Koullibaly too much since he left for Chelsea. They maintained their 100% record in the Champions League group phase and cruised into the knockout stages by beating a spirited Ajax 4-2 at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium. Hirving Lozano and new signing Giacomo Raspadori had the Italian League table-toppers on top within the first 16 minutes, and Georgian wunderkind Khvicha Kvaratskhelia added a second-half penalty after Davy Klaassen managed to get one back for the Dutchmen.
The Dutch club didn’t stop fighting though, and made a big surge towards the end of the game in the hopes of salvaging a point. Steven Bergwijn converted an 83rd-minute penalty to bring the score back to 3-2 but a shocking error in defence allowed Nigerian striker Victor Osimhen a chance to score Napoli’s fourth in the final minute. Which he did with aplomb. Nobody would’ve put money on Napoli to make such light work of a big Champions League group, but their flawless 12-point demolition of their 3 opponents thus far guarantees a top-two finish in Group A, having scored 17 goals in four matches. Action from the remaining game in Group A saw an out-of-touch Liverpool discipline Rangers with a 7-1 pasting, to put themselves a point away from qualification. Another underdog that’s probably made quite a few Belgian supporters a little richer than they were before the start of the season is Club Brugge, who surprisingly reached the knockout round after a 0-0 draw against Atlético Madrid. The point against the Spanish giant guaranteed them a top-two position in Group B. Atlético now sit on an unfortunate streak of zero wins from three games – and in third place with only four points – after fluffing a number of scoring chances against Club Brugge.
On the other end of Group B, Porto’s Galeno scored one and worked hard to earn two penalties for his side – which were coolly slotted by Mehdi Taremi – as they cruised to a 3-0 victory over Bayer Leverkusen. Porto now sit on second place in the group with two more games to play.
It was not a great start for new coach Xabi Alonso as the German club found themselves a goal behind after only six minutes. In true Teutonic style though they never gave up the fight and pushed hard all game. Unfortunately, the night belonged to Porta’s Diogo Costa, the superb keeper pulling off an unholy amount of top drawer saves. Porto sit second with six points with Leverkusen now seemingly destined to drop out with only three points putting them in fourth place behind Atlético..
In Group D, Marseille gave themselves a sniff of reaching the last 16 with a 2-0 victory over Sporting. It was an error-strewn game that left Sporting playing with only nine men after Ricardo Esgalo and Pedro Gonçalves were shown red cards, one on either side of the break. Mattéo Guendouzi and Alexis Sánchez put Marseille in second place for Group D with a goal each. The result leaves Tottenham at number one in the group with seven points, Marseille second with six, Sporting third with six, and Eintracht propping up the table with four.
Madrid save face whilst Copenhagen beat the bookies
A lot of Shakhtar Donetsk fans were on the cusp of seeing some big returns if they bet on their boys to win against Real Madrid. Alas, they were denied a momentous win over El Galacticos as Antonio Rüdiger scored a stoppage-time equaliser over the home team in their Champions League Group F match. Shakhtar, who went down 2-1 to the Spaniards in Madrid last week, went ahead after an Oleksandr Zubkov header at the start of the second half. Not to be outdone, former Chelsea defender Rüdiger saved Spanish blushes with his own header in the fifth minute of added time to end the game on a very dramatic note.
The draw puts Real Madrid top of Group F and four points ahead of RB Leipzig, who beat Celtic 2-0. Juventus continued to struggle as they fell to their third group stage defeat against Maccabi Haifa. The Israeli Premier League club put Juventus manager Massimiliano Allegri’s job in danger after they beat the odds, and their Italian opponents, in a historic 2-0 win. Omer Atzili hit the double before the break to compound the Italian giants’ woes this Champions League. Kylian Mbappé seemed to put Paris Saint-Germain in the pound seats with a late first half penalty, but João Mário equalised at 62 minutes to keep the top spot of Group H a neck and neck affair for PSG and Benfica.
Group E action saw Dinamo Zagreb and RB Salzburg draw 1-1 with Nicolas Seiwald putting the Austrians ahead early only to be denied a victory through a deflection off midfielder Robert Ljubicic.
Chelsea kept their impressive run of form under new manager Graham Potter going with their second consecutive win over AC Milan away from home. Chelsea downed the Italians 3-0 at home and then, on the return fixture, rubbed salt in the wounds by beating them 2-0 after an early Fikayo Tomori red card. The card was questionable and undoubtedly took the sting out of what was bound to be an electric encounter, but the Blues won’t cry as the win took them just two points away from qualification ahead of their game against RB Salzburg on Tuesday night.
Borussia Dortmund’s Jude Bellingham struck his fourth goal in successive games to level the scores after Sevilla’s Tanguy Nianzou put the visitors ahead in the 18th minute. The 1-1 draw sees Dortmund sitting second in the group behind leaders Man City, with Sevilla and Copenhagen falling behind.
Incredibly, Copenhagen managed to pull of an against-all-odds 0-0 draw against group leader Manchester City, but it may just come too late for the brave Danes.