Champions league groups review: 9-10 December 2014

Champions league groups review: 9-10 December 2014

 

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the final group stages matches took place in this season's Champions league and for quite a few teams, like Liverpool, it was the last attempt to continue their Champions league campaign. Let's see how the groups finished for this season.

 

Group A

Atletico Madrid and Juventus played out a 0-0 draw in Italy. In the other game of Group A, Olympiakos beat Malmo 4-2 to qualify for the Europa league.

 

Group B

Real Madrid beat Ludogorets 4-0 in a pointless game (as Madrid had already qualified and Ludogorets couldn't qualify for the knockout stages). The holders have won all of their Champions league games, so far. At Anflied, Liverpool drew 1-1 with Basel, meaning that the English side dropped into the Europa league knockout stages. Basel scraped through into the last 16 of the Champions league.

 

Group C

Monaco topped Group C by beating Zenit St Petersburg 2-0. Bayer Leverkusen, who I tipped for topping the group come the end, finished second after a goalless draw with Benfica.

 

Group D

Despite Arsenal's 4-1 in Turkey (which included a sensational strike from Aaron Ramsey), they didn't win the group as Dortmund drew 1-1 with Anderlecht and therefore topped the group on goal difference.

 

Group E

Manchester City qualified for the knockout stage as runners-up of Group E after winning for the first time in Italy, defeating Roma 2-0. Group winners Bayern beat CSKA Moscow 3-0.

 

Group F

Barcelona won Group h after beating PSG at the Nou Camp 3-1. Ibrahimovic scored after 15th minutes but Barcelona's superb South American trio (Messi, Neymar and Suarez) grabbed a goal each. In the other game, Ajax beat APOEL 4-0.

 

Group G

Chelsea beat Sporting Lisbon 3-1 at Stamford Bridge, meaning that Schalke qualified for the last 16 with a 1-0 win over Maribor. Sporting Lisbon qualified for the last 32 of the Europa league.

 

Group H

Group winners Porto drew 1-1 with Shakhtar Donetsk. BATE Borisov lost 2-0 to Alethic Bilbao in Spain.

 

Teams that qualify for the last 16 of the Champions league:

• Arsenal
• Chelsea
• Manchester City
• Atletico Madrid
• Juventus
• Real Madrid
• Basel
• Monaco
• Bayer Leverkusen
• Borussia Dortmund
• Bayern Munich
• Barcelona
• Paris St-Germain
• Schalke
• Porto
• Shakhtar Donetsk

Teams that drop into the Europa league Round of 32:

• Liverpool
• Olympiakos
• Zenit St Petersburg
• Anderlecht
• Roma
• Ajax
• Sporting Lisbon
• Athletic Bilbao

Teams that are out of European competition:

• Malmo
• Ludogorets Razgrad
• Benfica
• Galatasaray
• CSKA Moscow
• Apoel Nicosia
• Maribor
• BATE Borisov

Current Champions league top goalscorers:

• Luiz Adriano (Shakhtar Donetsk)- 9 goals
• Lionel Messi (Barcelona)- 8 goals
• Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) and others- 5 goals

 



 





 







Lionel Messi is currently the highest goalscorer in the history of the Champions league, currently on 75 goals.