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Manchester City produced a stunning comeback to beat defending champions Bayern Munich 3-2 at the Allianz Arena. Manuel Pellegrini’s men trailed 2-0 inside 12 minutes to goals from Thomas Muller and Mario Gotze – but goals from David Silva, Aleksandar Kolarov (penalty) and James Milner enabled City to come from behind and win this Group D clash.
The other group game saw super-sub Tomas Wagner score a last-minute winner to fire Viktoria Plzen into the Europa League on the back of a shock 2-1 win over nine-man CSKA Moscow.
It had been a campaign to forget for Plzen, who were pointless heading into the game, but they knew that victory would be enough to see them pip CSKA to third place on their head-to-head record.
The Czechs were determined to score in the first half but the honour fell to Moscow’s Ahmed Musa shortly after the break. The game then swung on Alan Dzagoev’s dismissal for violent conduct and Daniel Kolar promptly equalised to put Plzen back on course towards taking a first point.
All three would stay at the Doosan Arena, though, with Wagner rifling in a late strike before Pontus Wernbloom compounded CSKA’s misery by getting himself sent off.
Real Madrid put the seal on a fine group-stage campaign as they won 2-0 at FC Copenhagen on Tuesday – even if Cristiano Ronaldo did miss a penalty in the process.
Carlo Ancelotti’s men have topped Group B by some distance and finish with 16 points from 18 after a record-breaking night.
Luka Modric’s fine opener was the 31st successive European game in which they have scored, setting a new competition record, before Ronaldo made it safe after the break.
The Ballon D’Or hopeful had a chance to make it two late on from the spot but those in the Danish capital were stunned as the normally-faultless frontman’s effort was saved.
Benfica rallied to end Paris St Germain’s perfect record in this year’s Champions League but it was not enough to secure their place in the knockout phase.
A Rodrigo Lima penalty and Nicolas Gaitan goal saw Benfica bounce back from Edinson Cavani’s opener to seal a 2-1 win, but they were left waiting on Olympiacos’ result against Anderlecht, and Javier Saviola pleased his current paymasters but irked his old ones as his brace made sure the Greeks did not pay the penalty.
Saviola scored twice and missed a spot kick as Olympiacos beat eight-man Anderlecht 3-1 in Group C, with Vladimir Weiss also failing with a penalty before Alejandro Dominguez made it third time lucky from 12 yards in the last minute.
Omer Toprak fired Bayer Leverkusen into the knock-out stages as his second-half goal was enough to claim a 1-0 win at Real Socieded.
Toprak muscled onto a corner four minutes after half-time before blasting in a goal that proved decisive after Shakhtar Donetsk lost 1-0 at Manchester United through Phil Jones’ second-half strike.
That was enough to send Sami Hyypia’s side up into second place in Group A and into the last 16.
Meanwhile, Real Madrid and Cristiano Ronaldo racked up the Champions League records in a 2-0 victory over FC Copenhagen that ended the home side’s interest in European competition this season at the Parken stadium on Tuesday.
The nine-time European champions, who had already wrapped up top spot in Group B, have scored in a record 31 consecutive Champions League fixtures to beat the tally set by arch-rvials Barcelona last year.
Real’s second goal came from Ronaldo, who scored his group stage record ninth of the campaign with a simple close range finish three minutes after the interval and also had a last-minute penalty saved by Johan Wiland.
Real’s masterful midfielder Luka Modric opened the scoring and set the first record for Madrid when he curled home a beautiful opening goal in the 25th minute from 20 metres.
The group runners-up will be decided on Wednesday when Galatasaray and Juventus resume their match which was abandoned after 32 minutes on Tuesday. It will resume at 1300 GMT with Juve needing a point to qualify for the last 16.
Real are in first place with 16 points ahead of Juve on six with Galatasaray level on four points with Copenhagen, who have missed out on the Europa League spot by finishing last because they have a worse head-to-head record against the Turkish side.
On an uneven surface that did little to encourage flowing football, Copenhagen contained Madrid for most of the opening 25 minutes when, with better finishing, they might have converted a half-chance as the visitors’ defence took time to settle.
But once they found some rhythm, Madrid took control and it was little surprise when Modric side-stepped a challenge and fired a swerving drive into the top right corner.
They continued to work hard and push Madrid into delivering a full-blooded and energetic performance.
Madrid upped the tempo after the interval and during a spell of pressure Portuguese defender Pepe joined the attack and cushioned a header to compatriot Ronaldo who steered the ball home.
Ronaldo, showing his customary appetite for goals, could have gone on to score a hat-trick.
He hit a post in the 75th minute when a goal looked likely and then, after being brought down, produced a weak spot-kick that was easily saved by keeper Johan Wiland.-Soccernet.
Online Reporter