Arsenal needed rescuing by one of their young stars, Theo Walcott, to gain their place in knockout stages of the Champions League on the final day of group play.
The final sixteen teams are now set with the Gunners joining Bayern Munich, Roma, Chelsea, Marseille, Real Madrid, AC Milan and Shakhtar in the knockout stages.
It gets worse. By finishing second, Arsenal must face one of the following imposing teams -- Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich or Schalke. Their long-suffering fans might be wondering when this team’s luck will run out. After tonight, and another rabbit-out-of-the-hat outing, the magic is wearing thin.
In Ukraine Shakhtar not only won the group, but reached the knockout stage for the first time in six attempts. Unbeaten in 52 matches at their home Donbass Arena, their last loss coming two years ago against Sporting Lisbon, Shakhtar was confident in possession, strong in the tackle and if they didn't exactly fire on all cylinders up front, they did more than enough to blunt Braga's sputtering attack.
Shakhtar was in control long before Razvan Rat completed the job with a fine, first time strike to the lower corner in the 78th. And when Rat's perfect cross saw Luiz Adriano alone to finish at the far post five minutes later it was just reward for a match well-managed from the outset.
In Group E, AS Roma went to Romania knowing they needed at least a point to qualify. They got it, 1-1. Roma tried to take the game to CFR Cluj right from the outset, but were well-matched throughout the first half. It was left to Fabio Simplicio to get the breakthrough: he collected a giveaway in his own half of the field, sent a finely-weighted pass through to Marco Borriello that was side-footed home.
Auxerre would not have escaped last place in Group G anyway since Ajax Amsterdam took care of AC Milan 2-0 in the San Siro thanks to second half goals from Demy de Zeeuw and Toby Alderweireld. It was a deserved win for Ajax, who were by far the better team on the evening.
Chelsea went to Marseille knowing they were Group F winners but they are currently enduring one of their poorest runs in years. That form continued tonight as Carlo Ancelotti's team were well beat by an 81st minute Brandao goal that gave Olympique the 1-0 triumph but still left them second in Group F.
With Spartak Moscow already into the Europa League, the remaining Group F game had nothing at stake in Slovakia. Sadly, the fixture at Zilina would prove to be the most combustible of the night.
Just four and half minutes in, flares began to be thrown from the Spartak fans’ area and the match was suspended for 25 minutes. Ironically, the game was almost postponed before kickoff due to heavy fog. The game would resume, and despite having scorer Ibson sent off late, Spartak would win out 2-1, meaning MSK joined Partizan as one of only two teams to fail to take a point from the group stages.
Jamie Trecker is a senior writer for FoxSoccer.com covering the UEFA Champions League.
