Defined, the 16 qualified for the eighth in the Champions League

The sixth and last day of the group stage in the Champions League ended to define the surviving teams in the tournament. Even in the matches on November 2, places and leadership were being fought for in the European tournament, so emotions were not lacking in several courts of the old continent.

To begin with, PSG, led by luxury striker Messi, Neymar and Mbappé, qualified for the knockout rounds as second place in Group H despite a 2-1 victory against Juventus due to Benfica outscoring them on goal difference after winning Maccabi Haifa 6-1 and took over the lead. The Portuguese Eagles had a great group stage and closed it with a convincing win, which will make them avoid, at least in the round of 16, great contenders for the title such as Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and Manchester City.

Chelsea and Milan won their last meetings against Salzburg and Dinamo Zagreb respectively to secure their qualification as first and second place in the group. Real Madrid and Leipzig did the same in group F where the meringues could lose the lead in case of a defeat and the German team could be left out if they lost to Shakhtar from Ukraine.

Borussia Dortmund and Sevilla played for the last ticket to the round of 16 in group G, led by Manchester City. The Spanish team was giving the surprise against the Cityzens when they opened the scoring, however the English team, without Haaland, came back to win and leave them with no chance to stay in the competition. For their part, the Bees drew a draw against Copenhagen that did not harm them in the table of their group.

This is how Napoli, Porto, Bayern Munich, Tottenham, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Manchester City and PSG will play the round of 16 as first places in their respective groups while Liverpool, Bruges, Inter, Eintracht Frankfurt, Milan, Leipzig, Borussia Dortmund and PSG complete the 16 teams that will still play in the Champions League.

Barcelona, ​​among the great failures

Not everything is hunky-dory for the participants of the European tournament, as there were several teams that were far from their expected performance and consequently will play the Europa League or even were left out of any European competition. The Barcelona project leads the great failures after investing more than 150 million dollars in signings to fight in the European elite and finish third in the group, which it shared with Bayern Munich, Inter and VIktoria Plzen, so now will play again in the Europa League.

Juventus was another of the teams that could not stay in the Champions League after losing five of the six games they played. Benfica, PSG and Maccabi Haifa were their group rivals, however, despite their dismal results, it was still enough for the Vecchia Signora to sneak into the clubs that will fight for the Europa League, the second European competition.

The failures end with the bad moment that the Spanish clubs have in international competitions. Sevilla and Atlético de Madrid could not finish in the first two places in their respective groups, however the colchoneros did not even reach third place.

The Nervionenses did not have an accessible phase after facing Manchester City, Borussia Dortmund and Copenhagen, however they arrived with the possibility of qualifying for their last match, for their part the rojiblancos had already been eliminated since the fifth date and culminated their failure with defeat against Porto to finish bottom of their group.

deportes@eleconomista.mx