Man City Edge Through After Scare to Progress in Champions League

Photo : Reuters 

In a busy night of Champions League matches, 18 teams played their final group-stage games at the same time, and in the end, the top teams moved on to the next round. Liverpool and Barcelona had already secured spots in the top eight, but both teams had tough matches. Liverpool lost 3-2 to PSV Eindhoven, and Barcelona drew 2-2 with Atalanta. Even though they didn’t win, both teams stayed in first and second place in their groups.

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Other teams moving on to the knockout stage include Arsenal, Inter Milan, Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Aston Villa, and Lille. Aston Villa had the best game of the night, beating Feyenoord 6-1. Manchester City had a harder time than expected. They were losing 1-0 to Club Brugge, but Mateo Kovacic scored for City, and a lucky own goal from Brugge put City in the lead. Savinho added another goal to help City win.

PSG, who were in danger of not moving on, played very well and won 4-1 against Stuttgart. Ousmane Dembele scored three goals to lead the team. Atletico Madrid also won 4-1, beating Salzburg with two goals from Antoine Griezmann. Inter Milan won 3-0 against Monaco, with Lautaro Martinez scoring all three goals. Monaco played with just 10 men after a red card early in the game.

Arsenal came from behind to win 2-1 against Girona, securing their spot in the next round. Bayer Leverkusen also won 2-0 against Sparta Prague to make it through. Lille, who started the day in 12th place, moved up to 7th after a big 6-1 win against Feyenoord. The match had three own goals by Feyenoord and goals from Lille players Osame Sahraoui, Jonathan David, and Remy Cabella.

Real Madrid, who have won the Champions League the most times, won 3-0 against Brest. Rodrygo scored twice, and Jude Bellingham added another goal. Despite losing their last two matches, Brest still made it to the next round. Aston Villa led Celtic 2-0 early in their match thanks to two goals from Morgan Rogers. Celtic came back to tie it 2-2, but Ollie Watkins scored again for Villa, and Rogers completed his hat trick to secure the win.

AC Milan had a tough time against Dinamo Zagreb, losing 2-1. However, Milan still managed to move on to the next round because they had more points than Zagreb. Bayern Munich won 3-1 against Slovan Bratislava, with goals from Thomas Muller, Harry Kane, and Kingsley Coman. Benfica also won 2-0 against Juventus to reach the knockout stage.

The draw for the knockout stage will happen on Friday. This year, teams from the same country or group can be drawn to play each other. The next round of games will be played on February 11/12 and 18/19. The eight winners from the group stage will join the eight top-seeded teams in the round of 16, and the draw for that will happen on February 21.