Champions League scores: AC Milan advance to round of 16; Benfica get hot late to see PSG finish second
Benfica #Benfica
It has been a wild finish to the group stage of Champions League play. Benfica needed to make up a four-goal difference on PSG to win Group H, and in the 92nd minute of play, a speculative shot from outside the box by Joao Mario went in to secure a 6-1 victory over Maccabi Haifa. With that, despite PSG’s 2-1 victory over Juventus, the Parisians finish second in the group to become a team that no group winner will want to draw in the round of 16.
In other action, AC Milan rode an Oliver Giroud brace to a 4-0 victory over RB Salzburg while Chelsea won 2-1 over Dinamo Zagreb, keeping things as they were in Group E. The Blues will need to evaluate Ben Chilwell as he left the match with an injury. Meanwhile, Manchester City saw 17-year-old Rico Lewis score a goal in their 3-1 victory over Sevilla to become the youngest player to score on their first Champions League start.
Elsewhere, Real Madrid won Group F with a 5-1 victory over Celtic and were followed by RB Leipzig who won 4-0 over Shakhtar Donetsk to also move into the last 16. After moving onto a new coach during the season, this was an unlikely advancement for Leipzig but they were able to find their footing when it mattered. Despite heading to Europa League, this has been a successful Champions League campaign for Shakhtar Donetsk as they’ve dealt with playing their matches in Poland and all the off-the-field pressure that comes along with the war in Ukraine.
Wednesday’s scores
Here’s what to know:
An improbable group win for Benfica
It took a 92nd-minute goal from Mario to secure Benfica’s group-winning effort but it took an even more astounding seven tiebreakers for it to happen. Let’s take a look at them:
Who is through to the next round?
It has been quite a tournament for Portugal so far, producing two group winners, which is second to only the Premier League, who produced three. The Premier League has also seen the most teams make the last 16 with four, followed by Germany sending three. Italy and Portugal have two while Belgium, Spain, and France all sent one team to the knockouts. Depending on how things break out, this could make quite a difference in the UEFA association club coefficients as France, the Netherlands, and Portugal are only separated by four points.
Group Winners
Runners-Up
With the draw, the group winners will be paired with group runners-up, with the only initial stipulations being that you cannot be paired with the team you played in the group stage, and you also can’t be paired with a team from the same country. For example, Man City cannot get Liverpool in the round of 16.
With these advancements, Owen Otasowie, Christian Pulisic, Sergino Dest, Timothy Chandler, John Brooks, and Gio Reyna are the only Americans remaining in the tournament.
Dropping to Europa League
Some big teams will be heading to try and claim a Europa League title after finishing third in the group, joining the likes of Arsenal, Roma and Manchester United, who are already in the competition.
Europa League qualifiers
When is Champions League draw and how to watch?
Set your alarm clocks as bright and early Monday morning the matchups for the round of 16 will be set. The first leg of the round of 16 will kick off on Feb. 14 of 2023.