Champions League Round Up

steemsports (80)in #football • 6 years ago

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In Group E, Liverpool cruised to a 7-0 win in an historic Champions League night for English football. Manchester City and Tottenham were already assured of joining Manchester United and Chelsea in the knockout stages - but Liverpool’s 7-0 hammering of Spartak Moscow means five teams from one country made it into the last 16 for the first time.

Philippe Coutinho scored a hat-trick as Liverpool led 3-0 at half-time. A penalty after 4 minutes and then a second one a few minutes later sent Liverpool on their way. Compatriot Firminio added a third in the 18th minute and the game was already beyond Spartak.

Coutninho scored his third in between two goals from Sadio Mane before Mohammed Salah completed the rout. Elsewhere in Group E, Sevilla secured second spot after drawing 1-1 away to Maribor, where Marcos Tavares' header was cancelled out by Ganso.

In Group F, Manchester City relinquished their unbeaten streak, but secured top spot, as they were beaten 2-1 by Shakhtar Donetsk. City made seven changes to the team and were 2-0 down at the interval after goals from the Ukraine side's Bernard and Ismaily.

City did have several attempts and if it wasn’t for sloppy finishing it would have been a different game. Substitute Sergio Aguero did score for the Blues as he converted City's stoppage-time penalty, but it was too late for them to cling on to their unbeaten run.

Shakhtar's victory and Napoli's 2-1 defeat to Feyenoord means the Ukrainians qualified in second place.

In Group G, Champions League debutants RB Leipzig were pipped to second spot as the Germans were beaten by group winners Besiktas.

Liverpool target Keita cancelled out Alvaro Negredo's early penalty for the Turkish side but Leipzig’s task was made all the more difficult when midfielder Ilsanker was red carded. Besiktas took advantage of the extra man and scored a winner in the last minute through Talisca. The win ensured the Turkish side a top seed place in the draw on Monday.

Elsewhere in Group G, Porto secured the win they needed to book a place in the next round as they emphatically beat Monaco 5-2.

Two first-half goals from Vincent and a goal from Yacine Brahimi gave Porto a 3-0 half-time lead.
Kamil Glik pulled one back for Monaco from the penalty spot, to make the game more interesting, but Porto kept cruising. Telles scored the fourth, before Monaco pulled it back to 4-2 through Falcao, but Tiquinho put the icing on the cake in the dying stages.

In Group H, group winners Tottenham put an end to their miserable form of late with a 3-0 win against Apoel at Wembley Stadium. Fernando Llorente and Son Heung-minscored in the first half and Georges Nkoudou scored his first goal for Spurs late on in the second half, as Tottenham eased their way through.

They’ll be joined in the draw by group runners up Real Madrid after they beat Borussia Dortmund 3-2. Early goals from Borja Mayoral and Ronaldo seemingly put Real onto an easy victory. But Dortmund fought abck as they reduced the deficit through Pierre-Emerick and then levelled matters through Aubameyang. A late winner by Lucas Vazquez saw the Spanish giants into the next round.

Sources:
www.skysports.com
www.imgbb.com
www.thesun.co.uk