Chelsea, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich tonight qualified for the Round of 16 in the Champions League, riding dominant performances to massive results.
Elsewhere, Marseille routed minnows MSK Zilina 7-0 in an historic win; history repeated itself as Arsenal again failed to win in the Ukraine, falling 2-1 to Shakhtar Donetsk in Kiev; Roma struggled to overcome Basel 3-2 in Switzerland; Auxerre fought off a determined Ajax 2-1 and Braga knocked Partizan Belgrade out with a 1-0 win.
The match of the day was in Milan, where Real Madrid outran, outpassed and outplayed a slower, and stuttering AC Milan team -- and nearly lost. It was a remarkable turn of events that saw Real saved by a fabulous late goal by sub Pedro Leon, who smashed a pass from Karim Benzema right through keeper Christian Abbiati’s legs deep into stoppage.
For much of the first half, Real Madrid were clearly the superior side, and it was wholly justified that Gonzalo Higuain gave the Spaniards a halftime lead when Angel Di Maria slotted him through as time was expiring. It was merely the culmination of 45 minutes of sustained pressure that had seen Higuain, Ronaldo, Xabi and Di Maria test Abbiati early and often, and Andrea Pirlo was forced to head the ball off his own line twice.
But two gaffes by Madrid allowed AC Milan two precious goals, and it was the ageless Filippo Inzaghi who got them both. Entering at the hour mark for an ineffective Ronaldinho, it took only eight minutes for Milan to score, with 'keeper Iker Casillas making a hash of Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s cross that allowed Inzaghi an easy header. Ten minutes later, despite replays showing him clearly offside, Inzaghi slotted the go-ahead goal between Casillas' legs from Gattuso's searching ball.
But Madrid refused to fold, and manager Jose Mourinho’s canny sub with ten to play paid off. The Spaniards held the ball, waited for an opening, and got it when Benzema beat Alessandro Nesta with a nice flick to the waiting Pedro Leon. Mourinho raced the length of the touchline in celebration, then conspired to waste time with a sub. He didn’t need to: Howard Webb blew the whistle, and the Spanish giants were through.
The other game of the group saw Auxerre gain its first points with a 2-1 win over Ajax thanks to sub Steven Langil's 84th minute winner. Auxerre had gone up early when Frederic Sammaritano slammed a ball into the turf then home past Martin Stekelenburg in the ninth minute, but Ajax slowly gained confidence and possession, paying off when Toby Alderweireld was left unmarked in the box to head home Luis Suarez’ cross.
In the other group match of the night, Olympique Marseille sent Slovaks MSK Zilina packing from the Champions League with a brutal 7-0 thrashing that saw Andre-Pierre Gignac score a hat trick, Lucho Gonzalez grab two, and Gabriel Heinze and Loic Remy add one apiece.
Where to begin? Let’s just let Zilina’s magaer answer that: Pavel Hapal told the press after the match simply: “We were terrible in every aspect of the game.” That they were.
Gignac opened the scoring up in the 12th minute, and it never stopped. Unusually, keeper Martin Dubravka was rarely at fault: Virtually every goal was unsavable, and the poor keeper spent more time digging the ball out of the back of the net than he did palming it away from it.
The result gives Marseille a chance to progress to the knockout round, but they must beat Spartak and Chelsea back to back next if they are to do so.
Finally, in Group H, Arsenal are now winless in five attempts in the Ukraine, and they have their former player, Eduardo, to thank for that tonight.
After going up early when Theo Walcott raced past all comers to score in the 10th minute, the momentum flipped, and Shakhtar Donetsk dominated to grind out a deserved 2-1 victory. Dmyrto Chygrynskiy drew the teams level after Emmanuel Eboue conceded a free kick that Jadson coolly flighted in, and the big Ukranian headed the ball off Craig Eastmond’s head and into the net.
Eduardo won it at the stroke of halftime when Gael Clichy made a hash of defending Darijo Srna, allowing him to run to the byeline and cross right to the wide-open Croatian. Eduardo, who has expressed deep discomfort at playing his former team, did not celebrate the goal, instead walking back to the center circle for the restart.
The result means that both teams are in position to advance, with each needing just one win in their final two games.
They look certain to get them against a Braga side that tonight won their first ever Champions League match away from home 1-0, over a pitiful, pointless Partizan side that are now eliminated. Moises scored the only goal of the night in the 35th with a header to put the Serbs out of their misery and ensure at least a Europa League berth for the Portuguese.
Jamie Trecker is a senior writer for FoxSoccer.com covering the UEFA Champions League.
