Facts: The clubs that are further
Ready for further play in the Champions League: Napoli, Liverpool, Club Brugge, Porto, Bayern Munich, Inter, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Manchester City, Dortmund, Paris SG, Benfica, Tottenham, Eintracht Frankfurt.
Ready for the Europa League (group three): Barcelona, Sevilla, Bayer Leverkusen, Ajax, Sporting Lisbon.
All clubs at some point during the 90 minutes held one of the first two places that guaranteed play in the tournament’s round of 16 in a few months’ time.
Chancel Mbemba rebounded and powerfully headed in 1-0 for Marseille against Tottenham in the second of the first half’s seven extra minutes. An eventful end to a hapless first act at the Stade Vélodrome in Marseille.
The home team were forced into an early substitution when injured centre-back Eric Bailly broke after just eight minutes.
And Tottenham’s attacking star Son Heung-Min had to be helped off the field after a serious blow to the head. The South Korean looked really groggy when he was forced to change after just under half an hour of play.
Lenglet’s important goal
Heavy for Tottenham who already had offensive pieces such as Dejan Kulusevski and Richarlison on the injury list. Son can only hope that, with three weeks to go before the WC, he did not suffer a serious concussion.
Mbemba’s goal took Marseille second in the group at half-time, with Sporting Lisbon first after Arthur Gomes’ goal at home to Eintracht Frankfurt.
For Tottenham, a tie was necessary to pass Marseille and take a play-off spot. The intensive hunt paid off early. Clement Lenglet headed in 1-1 from Ivan Perisic’s free kick – and suddenly Spurs were on.
Around the same time, Daichi Kamada sent in the penalty that made it 1-1 for Frankfurt in Lisbon – and Tottenham were suddenly grouped with Sporting behind them.
Then Randal Kolo Muani made it 2-1 for the Germans – who went from group jumbo to group eight, overshadowed by Tottenham.
Marseille had several good chances to move up the table again. Instead, Pierre Emile Højbjerg made it 2-1 for Tottenham in the 95th minute – and sealed the group victory ahead of Frankfurt.
A goal that at the same time took Sporting to the Europa League while Marseille did their part in the European game.
Bayern took the sixth straight
In the other groups, most things were already decided before the evening’s late matches. Major clubs such as Bayern Munich, Inter, Liverpool and Napoli had already made sure to reach this winter’s round of 16.
Now they met in sportingly less significant heavyweight clashes.
Bayern, already clear group winners, saved several players at home against Inter, but took the sixth straight victory anyway. Benjamin Pavard showed the way and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting scored 2–0.
At Anfield, Liverpool needed to win by four goals to overtake Napoli and finish in group four. It stayed at 2–0 after goals from Mohammed Salah and David Núñez.
Barcelona had nothing but their reputation – and the match prizes – to play away against the group’s punching bag Victoria Plzen. The club already knew that the Europa League awaits on the other side of the new year. Whether the motivation was honor or money – just after six minutes Marcos Alonso sent in the lead goal for the Catalans.
Barcelona eventually won 4–2 after Ferran Torres scored twice.
Ajax, third in group like Barcelona, was even quicker to produce. Steven Berghuis made it 1-0 away to Glasgow Rangers after just four minutes. Mohammed Kudus increased to 2–0. Ajax won 3–1.
Rangers failed to pick up a point and exit the group stage with a 2–22 goal difference.
The Dutch came in against Napoli and Liverpool but made it comfortably to the Europa League.