Tottenham Hotspur on Tuesday came from two goals down to beat Olympiakos 4-2 and qualify for the UEFA Champions League last 16 on Jose Mourinho’s home debut, while Robert Lewandowski continued his incredible season by scoring four times for Bayern Munich.
Spurs were one of three teams to secure their place in the knockout phase with one game to spare as Manchester City and Real Madrid also made it to the last 16.
However, it looked like it might not be Tottenham’s night as they went 2-0 down inside 19 minutes in north London with a Youssef El Arabi strike followed by a Ruben Semedo tap-in for Olympiakos.
Photo: AFP
Mourinho had been unbeaten in his first home game in charge of each of the seven previous clubs he had coached, including in each of his two spells at Chelsea.
Dele Alli pulled one back for Spurs just before the interval and Lucas Moura set up Harry Kane to equalize five minutes after the break.
A thumping Serge Aurier strike completed the turnaround on 73 minutes before Kane headed in Christian Eriksen’s free-kick to become, on his 24th appearance, the quickest player to 20 goals in Champions League history.
“The boys gave everything, the feeling is good and we have difficult matches to come. We can look to the Bayern Munich game with different eyes,” Mourinho told BT Sport.
Tottenham are to finish second in Group B behind their final-day opponents Bayern, who made it five wins from five in Europe this season as Lewandowski’s quadruple helped them to a 6-0 win at Red Star Belgrade.
Lewandowski scored four goals in the space of 16 second-half minutes, the first of them a penalty, in between goals by Leon Goretzka and Corentin Tolisso.
Lewandowski has scored four times in a Champions League game once before, for Borussia Dortmund against Real Madrid in 2013. He now has 27 goals for Bayern this season.
“I am just as happy when I don’t score and we win,” the Polish striker told German Sky.
Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City got the point they needed to progress from Group C, drawing 1-1 with Shakhtar Donetsk. On a subdued occasion, Ilkay Gundogan got a 56th-minute opener, but Manor Solomon leveled for the Ukrainian side.
“The group stage is always tricky, but the target was to qualify and we have done it,” Guardiola said.
City are to finish top of the group, while Shakhtar would join them by winning their final game against Atalanta BC, who are still in contention to qualify after beating Dinamo Zagreb 2-0 thanks to Luis Muriel’s penalty and a cracking Alejandro “Papu” Gomez goal.
Atalanta remain bottom of the group, but can still go through if they win their final game, provided Dinamo do not beat City.
A 1-1 draw in the early game between Galatasaray and Club Brugge meant Real Madrid had joined Paris Saint-Germain in securing qualification from Group A before kicking off against the French side.
Karim Benzema scored twice for the hosts in an impressive performance, while there was controversy in between as the Portuguese referee showed Real goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois a red card and gave PSG a penalty for a foul on Mauro Icardi, only to overturn his decision following a video assistant referee review.
With Neymar on as a substitute, PSG scored twice in the last nine minutes to earn a draw, a Kylian Mbappe tap-in being followed by a Pablo Sarabia strike against his old side. The result allowed PSG to clinch top spot in the group.
Brugge are in third after Krepin Diatta’s stoppage-time equalizer canceled out Adem Buyuk’s opener for Galatasaray, but Diatta and teammate Clinton Mata were shown second yellow cards for wild celebrations, with the latter breaking a corner flag.
Paulo Dybala overshadowed Cristiano Ronaldo by scoring a superb free-kick to give Juventus a 1-0 home win over Atletico Madrid.
That result confirmed Juventus as Group D winners and left second-placed Atletico one point ahead of Bayer 04 Leverkusen, who won 2-0 at Lokomotiv Moscow thanks to Rifat Zhemaletdinov’s own-goal and Sven Bender’s volley.
A stunning Lamine Yamal strike on Thursday helped crown Barcelona La Liga champions with a 2-0 win over local rivals RCD Espanyol, with victory ensuring Real Madrid cannot catch them at the top of the table. Yamal’s effort and Fermin Lopez’s goal took Hansi Flick’s side seven points clear of Los Blancos with two matches remaining, to clinch Barcelona’s 28th title and complete a superb domestic treble. Only the UEFA Champions League title escaped an exciting young Barca side this season, as they won the league for the second time in six years, at Espanyol’s ground again just as in 2022-2023. Back then,
SSC Napoli will have to wait one more week to seal the Serie A title after on Sunday being held to a goalless draw at Parma, while closest rivals Inter drew 2-2 in a dramatic game with SS Lazio. Antonio Conte’s team stayed one point ahead of Inter and were unfortunate not to win after twice striking the woodwork through Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa and Matteo Politano, while Scott McTominay also had a free-kick tipped onto the crossbar. The away side thought they would be handed a chance to take the points from the penalty spot in the 96th minute when David Neres
Jannik Sinner on Thursday marched into the semi-finals of the Italian Open after destroying Casper Ruud in straight sets 6-0, 6-1, while Coco Gauff won a marathon three-set battle with China’s Zheng Qinwen to advance to the women’s singles final. American Gauff is to face Italy’s Jasmine Paolini in today’s title match after pulling through 7-6 (7/3), 4-6, 7-6 (7/4) in a match that lasted over three-and-a-half hours. Ruud was supposed to be Sinner’s toughest test in Rome since he came back from his three-month doping ban, as the Norwegian came into the match in hot form on clay after winning in
Omar Marmoush’s stunning long-range strike on Tuesday upstaged Kevin de Bruyne on the Manchester City great’s Etihad farewell. Marmoush let fly from about 30m to put City ahead in their 3-1 win against AFC Bournemouth in the Premier League. The victory moved Pep Guardiola’s team up to third in the standings and left qualification for the UEFA Champions League in their own hands heading into the last round of the season. “It’s really important. To be in the Champions League after what happened [this season] will be really nice,” the City manager said. De Bruyne was making his final home appearance for City before
RSS