A dramatic late penalty from Kris Commons sent Celtic into the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League as holders Chelsea bowed out.
Celtic progress as holders Chelsea go out
A dramatic late penalty from Kris Commons sent Celtic into the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League as holders Chelsea bowed out.
Indeed Chelsea made history as they became the first ever holders of the Champions League to bow-out in the group stages, but Celtic booked their place thanks to their 2-1 win over
Spartak Moscow at Parkhead.
Gary Hooper's sweet strike gave Neil Lennon's side a first-half lead but Spartak were level just before the break thanks to Ari's clever finish.
With time running out, Celtic won a contentious penalty just eight-minutes from time as Georgios Samaras went down under Marek Suchy's challenge. The referee pointed to the spot and Commons fired home.
Celtic went through as a second-string Barcelona did enough as far as the Scottish champions were concerned as they drew 0-0 with Benfica - which means it is the Portuguese side who finish third in Group G and go into the Europa League.
Rafa Benitez's side did what they had to as they eased to a 6-1 win over
FC Nordsjaelland - but it counted for nothing as Juventus claimed victory Shakhtar Donetsk.
Chelsea took the lead through David Luiz from the penalty spot on 39-minutes, but that was only after two spot-kicks had been missed just moments before with both teams failing to convert. Nordsjaelland missed the first through Nicolai Stockholm before Eden Hazard failed to convert.
It was 2-0 just before the break as Fernando Torres ended his goal-drought with a neat finish, before Joshua John scored just seconds into the second-half to bring the Danes back into it - but hope they could get something from the match was soon extinguished.
Gary Cahill added a third before Torres netted again. Juan Mata then scored on the hour before substitute Oscar fired home the sixth.
But Chelsea's efforts were in vein thanks to Juve's win at the Donbass Arena and the Italians took the win thanks to Olexander Kucher - who put through his own net just before the hour.
Manchester United ended their Group H campaign in disappointing fashion as they lost 1-0 to
Cluj at Old Trafford.
United boss Sir Alex Ferguson rested a number of key players, and it showed as Brazilian Luis Alberto fired the winner just after the break.
Cluj, though, despite getting to ten points do not go through as
Galatasaray came from behind to claim a 2-1 win at
Braga.
Mossoro had put Braga ahead, but Gala came back in the second-half and sealed the win thanks to goals from Burak Yilmaz and Aydin Yilmaz.
Group F was wrapped up by
Bayern Munich who claimed a 4-1 win over
BATE Borisov at the Allianz Arena.
Goals from Mario Gomez, Thomas Muller, Xedran Shaqiri and David Alba did the job for Bayern, and they could even afford to go down to ten-men as Jerome Boateng was sent-off just after half-time. Egor Filipenko pulled back a consolation in stoppage time for BATE.
Bayern's win meant Valencia could not take top spot, but they also claimed a win as they beat bottom placed Lille 1-0 in France courtesy of Jonas's first half penalty.
Lille's loss means BATE take the Europa League spot for finishing third.
