London, November 2 (BUS): Tottenham Hotspur and Eintracht Frankfurt came from behind to win their matches and secure a place in the round of 16 of the Champions League.
In the first half of the last round of group matches on Tuesday, Marseille and Sporting Lisbon were qualified from Group D.
Instead, it was their opponents who came forward as the stoppage-time winner of Pierre-Emile Hojberg, as Tottenham beat Marseille 2-1 to top the group, and Frankfurt won by the same score in Lisbon to secure second place in their Champions League debut. reports.
“During the first half we didn’t play well, it was difficult,” said Clement Lenglet, Tottenham’s top scorer. “When we go back to the dressing room, it was an important moment for the match… During the second half we played a better match, with a lot of intensity.”
The first winners in the other groups have already been decided on Tuesday, but not necessarily the standings.
Porto beat Atletico Madrid 2-1 to snatch the top spot in Group B after Club Brugge drew 0-0 with Bayer Leverkusen.
Napoli retained their top spot in Group A despite losing their first points in the Champions League this season, losing 2-0 to second-placed Liverpool.
Bayern Munich managed to advance with a perfect record as they beat Inter Milan 2-0 to score six wins out of six. The four spots in Group C have already been decided with Inter taking second place ahead of Barcelona.
End of the day drama
In a rare event for a group, all four teams entered the final round of matches with a chance to advance.
Which teams would pass and in what order changed several times during the night.
But Højbjerg scored with the last kick of the match on the Stade Velodrome for a goal that lifted Spurs to the top of Group D over Frankfurt, which was top of the table until the Denmark midfielder’s goal.
This goal also means that Marseille finished last and will not participate in the European competition in the new year.
Lenglet scored the equalizer for Tottenham in the 54th minute after a sad first half from the English side, who had no touch in the opponent’s penalty area before the break. Tottenham were late at the end of the first half when Chancel Mbemba headed a corner kick.
Frankfurt also came from behind, with Kolo Mwany scoring the winning goal in the 72nd minute for the visitors. Arthur Gomez put the hosts ahead in the 39th minute, and Frankfurt equalized with a penalty kick by Daichi Kamada in the 62nd minute.
no consolation
Atletico Madrid doesn’t even have solace in the Europa League qualifiers.
The Spanish team was the favorite to advance from its group, but left it teetering on the last place after the loss to Porto, which ensured the top of the second group.
Few expected Porto to advance even after losing their first two Champions League matches this season, but the Portuguese side had already secured their place in the Round of 16 with a match.
First-half goals from Mehdi Taremi and Stephen Ostaccio helped Porto win their fourth consecutive Champions League match to finish one point above Brugge.
Canadian winger Tajon Buchanan hit the crossbar in the first seconds of the second half.
perfect again
They are consecutive group stage records for Bayern Munich.
Benjamin Pavard headed the German team in the lead in the first half, and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting beat Inter in the 72nd minute with his seventh goal in his past six matches.
Barcelona ended their disappointing Champions League campaign with a 4-2 victory over Viktoria Plzen, which – unlike Bayern – fell to their sixth straight defeat.
Ferran Torres scored two goals, Marcos Alonso and teenager Pablo Torri scored a goal for both the Catalan club. The hosts got on the board with two goals from Thomas Churro.
Not the best
Napoli were looking to become the first Italian team since Milan in 1992 to achieve six consecutive victories in their group.
However, late goals from Mohamed Salah and Darwin Nunez ended the Italian team’s start to the season unbeaten in all competitions.
Liverpool ended the tie on points with Napoli, but is second in the head-to-head record, after losing 4-1 in Italy in the opening match of the Champions League.
Rangers remained with an unwelcome record after the 3-1 loss at home to Ajax, which secured a place in the Europa League qualifiers.
Rangers finished the first set with six consecutive defeats and a goal difference of minus 20 – the worst ever group stage record.