Tottenham beat defending champion Inter Milan 3-1 to record one of the greatest results in franchise history, while Barcelona was also made to wait before sealing qualification to the Champions League’s knockout stage after drawing 1-1 at FC Copenhagen.
Rafael van der Vaart opened the scoring for Tottenham in the 18th minute before man-of-the-match Gareth Bale set up Peter Crouch and Roman Pavlyuchenko for goals after the break.
Inter striker Samuel Eto’o had made it 2-1 but it could not stop the Spurs going above the Italian champions on goal differential in Group A.
Like Inter, which stumbled to its first defeat, Barcelona would have reached the last 16 with a win, but Copenhagen’s Claudemir canceled out Lionel Messi’s goal to earn the Danish side a point in Group D.
Manchester United beat Bursaspor 3-0 to move to the brink of qualification from Group C, while Lyon’s 100 percent record in Group B ended with a 4-3 defeat at Benfica, who came close to -squandering a four-goal lead.
With Inter, Barcelona and Lyon all failing to win, no side is through to the knockout stage yet. Arsenal, Real Madrid, Chelsea and Bayern Munich had a chance to do so yesterday.
Wales winger Bales put in a good performance at White Hart Lane, with Inter’s Brazil right back Maicon undone time and again by Bale’s trickery and pace.
Van der Vaart ran onto Luka Modric’s slipped through-ball to curl in a finish and maintain his run of scoring in every home game he’s played for Tottenham since his deadline-day move.
Bale, who ran Maicon ragged in the first half, repeated the dose after the break and laid on perfect crosses for Crouch and Pavlyuchenko to apply almost identical finishes at the far post.
In the group’s other match, Nacer Chadli and Luuk de Jong scored late goals to earn FC Twente a 2-0 win over 10-man Werder -Bremen and put it on five points, two behind Spurs and Inter.
Messi scored when he lashed in a right-foot shot that went in off the post to put three-time winner Barcelona ahead in Denmark.
However, Copenhagen equalized when Barcelona goalkeeper Victor Valdes fumbled Jesper Gronkjaer’s cross from the left and Claudemir was on hand to volley in at the far post, keeping his side a point behind the Spanish champions.
Rubin Kazan and Panathinaikos earlier played out a second successive 0-0 draw to reduce their hopes of a top-two finish.
In Group C, United closed in on the last 16 thanks to a comfortable win in Bursa, secured through goals after the break by Darren Fletcher, Gabriel Obertan and Bebe.
After a dull first half, the game improved after the break and Fletcher broke the deadlock when he drilled home a diagonal finish after being found by Michael Carrick.
Obertan cut inside his marker in the 73rd minute to smash home the second from 20 yards and substitute Bebe wrapped up the win soon after with a deflected effort.
Bursaspor is yet to pick up a point or score a goal in four games, while United needs just a point against Rangers in two weeks’ time to advance.
The Scottish champions began the night a point clear of Valencia, but the Spanish side leapfrogged its opponents thanks to Roberto Soldado’s brace and a third by substitute Tino Costa in a 3-0 win.
Group B leader Lyon would have made it into the last 16 with a point at Benfica, but Claude Puel’s side lost despite a remarkable late comeback after falling 4-0 behind.
The seven-time French champions had little chance of making it four wins in a row after conceding three first-half goals at the Estadio da Luz, with Alan Kardec, Fabio Coentrao and Javi Garcia finding the target in the space of 22 minutes.
Portugal left back Coentrao extended Benfica’s lead in the 67th before goals by playmaker Yoann Gourcuff, Bafetimbi Gomis and Dejan Lovren in the final 15 minutes almost rescued a point for Lyon.
Schalke drew 0-0 at Hapoel Tel Aviv to close the gap on Lyon to two points.
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