Juve and Bayern earn top spots

A review of Wednesday's Champions League action not involving a British side, including wins for Juventus and Bayern Munich.

Last Updated: 05/12/12 at 22:48 Post Comment    Bet with SkyBet  Champions League Specials. Click here to bet.

Juventus celebrate their victory over Shakhtar Donetsk

Juventus celebrate their victory over Shakhtar Donetsk

An own goal saw Juventus go through to the knockout stages of the Champions League as Group E winners as they edged out Shakhtar Donetsk 1-0 in Ukraine.

Olexander Kucher inadvertently turned Stephan Lichtsteiner's cross into his own net in the 56th minute, seeing Juve leapfrog Shakhtar at the top and rendering Chelsea's 6-1 thrashing of FC Nordsjaelland meaningless.

Both teams struck the post but Juventus could just about claim to be worthy winners as they had the better of the chances and ensured most of the game was played in Shakhtar territory.

Bayern Munich sealed top spot in Group F as they coasted to a 4-1 victory over BATE Borisov at the Allianz Arena.

BATE never threatened a repeat of their 3-1 upset earlier in the competition as a much-changed Bayern side did more than enough to ensure they will avoid the likes of Barcelona and Manchester United in the next round.

Mario Gomez, one of seven changes, opened the scoring on 21 minutes before Thomas Muller and Xherdan Shaqiri netted shortly after half-time to ensure a nerveless second period.

Substitute David Alaba completed the rout with seven minutes remaining before Egor Filipenko grabbed a BATE consolation.

By then, both sides had been reduced to 10 men with Bayern's Jerome Boateng seeing red for a poor challenge on Artem Kontsevoy in the 51st minute and Denis Polyakov following 18 minutes later for a second bookable offence.

The win saw Bayern pip Valencia to top spot, despite the Spaniards winning 1-0 in Lille thanks to a 37th-minute penalty from Oliveira Jonas after Marko Basa had impeded him.

Celtic's 2-1 win over Spartak Moscow meant Benfica missed out on a place in the last 16 despite a plucky 0-0 draw at Barcelona in Group G.

With no goals, the major incident at the Nou Camp was an injury to Lionel Messi, who was taken off on a cart after appearing as a second-half substitute, leaving Barca to finish with 10 men.

CFR Cluj's 1-0 win over Group G winners Manchester United was in vain as Galatasaray took second place after coming back to beat Braga 2-1.

Marcio Mossoro's curling shot gave Braga a first-half lead, but Burak Yilmaz and namesake Aydin struck in the second half to turn it around.


Click here for completely free £10 bet with Sky Bet & £5 free every week


Bet with SkyBet  Champions League Specials. Click here to bet.

Football365 Facebook Fan Page

The Football365 fan page is a great place to meet like minded people, have football related discussions and make new friends.

Related News

Sky Bet

    • Retrieving latest Sky Bet odds

Most Commented

Readers' Comments

R

afa Benitez has won more trophies (10) over the past 11 years than the rest of the current managers in the EPL combined, except for Alex Ferguson.

angry bird
Chelsea duo salute Benitez

T

he day Tonys hat goes missing for some bantz will be different story altogether..

TheBrestEver
Stoke probe 'banter gone wild'

I

m starting to think Roman may never actually be happy at the top level. If he wants all conquering fancy football I wonder if he'd be better off buying a lower division side then paying outlandish salaries to attract high caliber players too good for the division.

john matrix
The Most Unsatisfying European Victory...

Footer 365

David Moyes arrives at Manchester United's Carrington training ground

David Moyes has travelled to Manchester United's training ground ahead of officially taking over as manager of the club.

The SPL meet again on Monday to try and thrash out a deal for the Scottish game

The SPL meet again at Hampden Park on Monday to try and thrash out a deal for the reconstruction of Scottish football.

Transfer News: Aston Villa boss Paul Lambert in talks to keep Christian Benteke

Paul Lambert is determined to keep Christian Benteke at Aston Villa next season despite interest from elsewhere.

Mail Box

Arsenal Should Be Praised For Finishing Fourth

Arsenal fans are largely positive after their top four finish, whilst one wag suggest buying Bale from their rivals. We also have an interesting final mail. Enjoy...

James Collins Is Only 29. Tough Paper Round

He is one of a number of solid shouts for players that look old before their time. We also have the final words on lovely D-Beck and a rejection of end of season playoffs...

© 2013 British Sky Broadcasting Ltd. All Rights Reserved