Champions League, Manchester City and Leipzig qualified for the round of 16

Beautiful, successful and… qualified. With two days to spare, Manchester City and Leipzig close the accounts in group G: the teams coached by Guardiola and Rose, respectively led by the usual Haaland (double) and by Xavi Simons, gain a pass to the round of 16 thanks to victories obtained against Young Boys and Red Star. In group E, the same as Lazio, Atletico Madrid overwhelms Celtic (6-0) with goals – two each – from Griezmann and Morata: the Colchoneros thus fly to first place, +1 on the Biancocelesti, second with 7 points. Porto also did well, winning 2-0 against Antwerp.

MANCHESTER CITY-YOUNG BOYS 3-0

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Just like at the crossroads in Switzerland two weeks ago, the race is one-way. This time too, for a change, the title of man of the match rightfully belongs to the giant Haaland. City beat Young Boys 3-0 and confirmed themselves at the top of the group with full points. Walker and his teammates dominated from the opening minutes, but in the first quarter of an hour they were denied the goal several times by Racioppi. Wicky’s dam collapses in the 23rd minute: Lauper naively trips Nunes, the referee awards a penalty and Haaland converts it. The best plays always develop on the flanks, so much so that the second goal was born from the duet of Grealish and Foden: the former changes play, the latter receives, dribbles past an opponent, enters the area and makes it 2-0. It’s all downhill for City, even in the second half: Haaland concedes an encore with a long-range strike, Lauper gets sent off with another foul punished with the (second) yellow card. The match ends 3-0: the English and Leipzig – separated by 3 points in the standings – are already qualified, but can still compete for first place.

RED STAR-LEIPSIZ 1-2

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The Germans lost the match against City but won all the other matches and so, after four rounds, they find themselves already qualified for the round of 16. Rose’s team returns from Serbia with a hard-fought victory: Sesko and Openda don’t have an easy life against Bakhar’s rocky central defenders, then the star Xavi Simons takes the lead, scoring in the 8th minute with a right-footed shot from distance . Sesko squanders the chance to double the lead: it goes into half-time at 0-1. The match reignites in the second half, when Red Star returns to attack in search of a point that would reopen the qualification discussion. Nothing to be done, however, also because the Blaswich goalkeeper was ready for Olaynka’s shot, which wasted the clearest scoring opportunity for the Serbs. Leipzig switches to a three-man defence, suffers but remains compact. In the home team’s best moment, Openda doubles their lead on the counterattack. In the 81st minute Kanga closes the gap with a cross shot, makes a charge, but doesn’t reap the desired results. At the final whistle, the score is 1-2. Now, for the Serbs, the match on November 28th at Young Boys’ home will be fundamental: third place is up for grabs, which is worth access to the Europa League.

ATLETICO MADRID-CELTIC 6-0

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In four games, five goals for Morata and another four for Griezmann. With two goalscorers like this, everything is easy for the Colchoneros, who against Celtic also find themselves in numerical superiority starting from the 23rd minute. The Scots paid dearly for a late intervention by Maeda (sent off) and in the second half they gave in to the quality and freshness of the Spaniards. The goal that opens the ball is scored by Griezmann in the 6th minute: left-footed low shot from the edge of the area, deflected just enough to become uncatchable for Joe Hart. The second goal came in added time in the first half, with Morata taking advantage of a pass from Gimenez and closing the game with a sliding touch. The gap becomes clear upon returning from the changing rooms: Griezmann makes it 3-0 with an overhead kick, the newly substitute Lino scores the poker with a nice right-footed shot from a tight angle. In the final, Morata repeats himself and Saul Niguez also smiles, taking advantage of yet another defensive mix-up to score a steal goal. The show ends with a score of 6-0.

PORTO-ANTWERP 2-0

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Van Bommel’s Belgians remain last with zero points, while Porto extends their lead on Shakhtar (now at -3) and joins Barça at the top of the group H table. Conceicao’s team fights for 90 minutes, also because Antwerp risks a lot in the first half hour but then he takes the measure of the Portuguese and comes close to equalising. Pepé, recently called up by the Brazilian national team for the first time, immediately came close to making it 1-0 with a shot saved by Lammens. The referee of the match is the Italian Mariani, who in the 31st minute awards a penalty to the Portuguese for a foul by Kerk on Eustaquio. Evanilson, author of a hat-trick in the first leg, made no mistakes. In the second half balance reigned, even if the ending was heart-pounding: Muja ate the 1-1 goal in the 90th minute and a minute later Porto closed the game with a header from Pepe. The former Real defender, who will turn 41 on 26 February, scores in the 91st minute from the corner, relaunching the dragons in pursuit of first place in the group.