Juventus, Barcelona, PSG, Chelsea, Sevilla advance in Champions League

Juventus, Barcelona, Chelsea and Sevilla all reached the knockout stage of the Champions League with two matches to spare on Tuesday.

Alvaro Morata scored in damage time to ship Juventus by means of with a 2-1 win at dwelling over Hungarian group Ferencváros, guaranteeing the Italian champions completed a minimum of second in Group G.

Barcelona tops the group and booked its spot within the final 16 for the 17th straight season with a snug 4-Zero victory over Dynamo Kyiv regardless of the absence of Lionel Messi, Frenkie de Jong and numerous others.

Both Chelsea and Sevilla left it late to advance from Group E. Olivier Giroud got here off the bench to attain an injury-time header as Chelsea gained 2-1 at Rennes, and Munir El Haddadi scored within the closing minute of stoppage time as Sevilla defeated Russian newcomer Krasnodar 2-1 away.

Elsewhere, Erling Haaland maintained his outstanding scoring tempo with two targets to place Borussia Dortmund in contact of reaching the final 16 with a 3-Zero win at dwelling over Club Brugge.

AMERICANJOY

United States proper again Sergiño Dest scored his first objective for Barcelona and one other American, 19-year-old ahead Konrad de la Fuente, got here on as an alternative in Kyiv for his debut.

De la Fuente, who made his debut for the U.S. earlier this month, turned the file seventh American to play in Europe’s premier competitors this season.

It was solely the second time two Americans performed collectively for a membership within the Champions League. Tim Howard and Jonathan Spector performed for Manchester United towards Fenerbahçe on Dec. 8, 2004.

Martin Braithwaite scored twice and Antoine Griezmann grabbed the opposite as Barcelona secured its fourth win in 4 video games from Group G. It at present has a three-point lead over Juventus.

Barcelona was withou

NO EUROPA LEAGUE

t the injured Sergio Busquets, Gerard Piqué and Sergi Roberto.

Sevilla qualifying for the final 16 means the Spanish facet can not defend its Europa League title, as solely the third-place finishers in every group benefit from the cushion of taking part in in Europe’s secondary competitors.

It might be an odd feeling for the Spanish facet, which already has a file six Europa League titles, all since 2006.

Julen Lopetegui’s group defeated Inter Milan 3-2 in final season’s closing.

“Qualifying for the last 16 of the Champions League is fantastic,” Lopetegui mentioned on his return to Krasnodar, the place he was beforehand fired as coach of Spain’s nationwide group earlier than the 2018 World Cup for taking a job with Real Madrid with out telling the Spanish soccer federation.

Both Sevilla and Chelsea have 10 factors in Group E, whereas Krasnodar and Rennes stayed at one level every after 4 matches.

GOAL MACHINES

Haaland took his tally to 16 targets in 12 Champions League video games in Dortmund’s 3-Zero win over Brugge, whereas Jadon Sancho scored an attention grabbing free kick to place the German facet heading in the right direction to qualify from Group F.

Dortmund subsequent faces second-placed Lazio on Dec. 2.

Former Dortmund ahead Ciro Immobile scored twice on his return from the coronavirus in Lazio’s 3-1 win over Zenit Saint Petersburg.

Immobile has 46 targets in 53 appearances in all competitions for Lazio for the reason that starting of final season. Only Robert Lewandowski (68 targets) has scored extra in Europe’s 5 high leagues over the identical interval.

Dortmund has 9 factors, Lazio eight, Brugge 4 and Zenit one.

FERNANDES KEEPS UNITED ON TRACK

Bruno Fernandes scored two early targets in Manchester United’s 4-1 win over İstanbul Başakşehir, retaining the Premier League group on observe to qualify from Group H.

Fernandes would possibly even have scored a hat trick, however he handed over spot-kick duties to Marcus Rashford, who had been introduced down for the penalty, and the England ahead transformed to make it 3-Zero at an empty Old Trafford.

Daniel James scored the fourth as United made up for its shock 2-1 loss in Istanbul.

United now has 9 factors, three greater than each Paris Saint-Germain and Leipzig.

A penalty from Neymar was sufficient for a nervous-looking PSG to scrape a 1-Zero win towards Leipzig, which wasted numerous possibilities to equalize.

PSG’s win offers it a greater head-to-head file towards Leipzig, due to grabbing an away objective from their earlier sport and never conceding any.

PSG performs United at Old Trafford on Dec. 2 earlier than internet hosting Başakşehir six days later.