Category: Football (Soccer)

We look at the state of play before Wednesday’s games with places in the last 16 and playoffs up for grabs

IN THE AUTOMATIC SPOTS

Barcelona and Benfica produced a classic that swung from the sublime to the ridiculous. We hand out honours and dishonours from the latest round of action

Barcelona

• Milan and Inter in top eight after victories
• Shakhtar give themselves hope of playoffs

Santiago Giménez scored twice in the first half as Feyenoord stunned Bayern Munich 3-0 in the Champions League on Wednesday to boost their chances of a top-eight finish.

Giménez fired them into the lead in the 21st minute with a deft shot before the Mexico international added a second with a penalty in the ninth minute of first-half stoppage time. Ayase Ueda, on as a substitute, killed off the game in the 89th minute after the Feyenoord keeper Justin Bijlow had denied Bayern with a string of strong saves.

Celtic and Arsenal won and will at worst be in the playoffs, while Bayern Munich were thrashed by Feyenoord

Celtic have the ball in the net, but it’s disallowed for offside, Maeda being caught a couple of yards clear. He finished it well, mind.

Arsenal roar into an early lead! And there’s a superb assist from Havertz, who has his back to goal as a left-wing cross reaches him and instead of attempting any fancy nonsense lays back to Rice, who with the benefit of facing in the right direction hammers in at the near post!

• Julián Álvarez double seals 2-1 win for 10-man Atléti
• Bologna 2-1 Dortmund, Red Star 2-3 PSV Eindhoven

Atlético Madrid fought back from a goal and a man down to rescue a dramatic 2-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League on Tuesday.

The hosts played more than an hour with a man down after midfielder Pablo Barrios was shown a straight red card for a reckless studs-up tackle from behind on Jeremie Frimpong in the 24th minute. Jan Oblak made a string of saves but the Germans broke the deadlock just before the break with a headed goal by Piero Hincapié.

Raphinha scored deep into stoppage time to hand Barcelona a dramatic 5-4 comeback win at Benfica and a place in the last 16 of the Champions League on Tuesday.

Vangelis Pavlidis’s hat-trick had given the hosts a two-goal half-time lead and they were 4-2 up with 12 minutes to play before Hansi Flick’s side pulled out a sensational victory, sealed by the Brazilian with a finish on the break, seconds after Benfica had appealed in vain for a late penalty.

More to follow

• Club training to music after setback of Aston Villa draw
• ‘You play a song and immediately you feel different’

Mikel Arteta is hoping the sound of music can help Arsenal seal a place in the top eight of the Cham­pions League and has urged his ­players to take out the frustration of letting slip a two-goal lead against Aston Villa when they face Dinamo Zagreb on Wednesday night.

Victory against the Croatian side would put Arsenal on the verge of qualifying directly for the last 16 with a trip to Girona next week in their final fixture to come. Arsenal will again be without William Saliba after the Frenchman missed the draw against Villa on Saturday with a hamstring strain, although Arteta said the defender was “evolving well”.

• ‘Some are not following the plan,’ says manager
• Ollie Watkins and Jhon Durán ‘didn’t work well’

A seething Unai Emery questioned the mentality of some of his Aston Villa players and conceded his ­latest attempt to partner Ollie Watkins and Jhon Durán backfired after they blew an opportunity to qualify automatically for the Champions League last 16.

Emery accused several of his Villa players of “not following the plan” after an insipid 1-0 defeat in Monaco. Asked to elaborate on his comments, the Villa manager tapped his temple with his index finger and said: “We want it and we need it.” He added: “We are being demanding with the players we have and some are not following the plan we are doing. This is the objective I have now, to try to build the team as strong as possible with a mentality we are building.”

A leggy Aston Villa’s hopes of automatic qualification for the Round of 16 took a dent as they were sunk by Wilfried Singo’s early strike at the Stade Louis II

• Read Ben Fisher’s match report from Monaco

Youri Tielemans: The former Leicester midfielder has proved sceptics wrong with displays central to the transformation of Unai Emery’s side. Ben Fisher reports …

Adi Hutter speaks: “We have an opportunity against a big, big opponent and tomorrow we will face a team in the Premier League who is stable in their results,” said Monaco’s head coach in his pre-match press conference. “Arsenal were the better team [on Saturday], but Villa came back and played out a draw. Unai Emery has won four titles in Europe and he has very good players.

• Atlético 2-1 Leverkusen, Bologna 2-1 Dortmund

Meanwhile, in the other earlier game, Atalanta are leading Sturm Graz 1-0. That will lift them to third, though with plenty of football to be played this match day. Villa are in danger of slipping from the top eight; Monaco could go to ninth. So much to play for. Thank you, Uefa, thank you!

Not going to plan for Villa in the Principality.