Marseille: Tottenham qualified for the last 16 of the Champions League after recovering from a woeful first-half performance to beat Marseille 2-1 and win their group on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT).
Elsewhere, Barcelona’s campaign came to an end despite a 4-2 win at Viktoria Plzen, while Liverpool and Bayern Munich had 2-0 wins over Napoli and Inter Milan respectively.
Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg scored with the last kick of the game at Stade Velodrome for a goal that lifted Tottenham to the top of Group D above Eintracht Frankfurt, who had already clinched a 2-1 win at Sporting and were in first place until Hojbjerg’s goal.
That goal also meant Marseille finished in last place and will have no involvement in European competition in the new year.
The French team had to win to advance to the knockout stage for the first time since the 2011-12 season and dominated the first half, penning the visitors in their own half and finally taking the lead in stoppage time when Chancel Mbemba headed in after a quickly taken corner.
Tottenham didn’t have a touch in the opposition penalty box in the first half, during which Son Heung-min was forced off the field — looking dazed — after receiving a shoulder to his face by Mbemba. The forward, who is set to play at the World Cup for South Korea, appeared to be unsteady on his feet as he was helped off by a member of Spurs’ medical staff.
Pierre-Emile Højbjerg celebrates the last-gasp goal which secured top spot for Tottenham in Champions League Group D.Credit:Getty
Tottenham finally gained a foothold early in the second half and Clement Lenglet headed home a 54th-minute equaliser by glancing in Ivan Perisic’s left-wing free kick.
In a nervy final 15 minutes, Hojbjerg struck the crossbar for Tottenham before, at the other end, Alexis Sanchez’s goalbound shot was deflected wide off the body of Perisic.
Marseille’s team contained four players who have played for Tottenham’s fierce rivals, Arsenal, and one them — Sead Kolasinac — entered as a substitute and had a golden chance in the 87th minute to put the hosts ahead. Found by a cross to the far post, Kolasinac headed wide from barely two meters out.
With Marseille pouring forward and animated coach Igor Tudor on the field of play, Tottenham broke forward in the fifth minute of stoppage time and Harry Kane played through Hojbjerg to crash a shot in off the post.
Champions League matchday 6 results
Wednesday (AEDT):
- Porto 2 Atletico Madrid 1
- Bayer Leverkusen 0 Club Brugge 0
- Bayern Munich 2 Inter Milan 0
- Liverpool 2 Napoli 0
- Marseille 1 Tottenham 2
- Rangers 1 Ajax 3
- Viktoria Plzen 2 Barcelona 4
- Sporting Lisbon 1 Eintracht Frankfurt 2
Thursday fixtures:
- 4.45am: Real Madrid v Celtic, Shakhtar Donetsk v RB Leipzig.
- 7am: AC Milan v RB Salzburg, Maccabi Haifa v Benfica, Copenhagan v Borussia Dortmund, Manchester City v Sevilla, Juventus v PSG, Chelsea v Dinamo Zagreb.
The game was played with Tottenham manager Antonio Conte sitting in the stands as a result of his red card in last week’s draw against Sporting.
Barcelona had already been eliminated in advance, while Plzen knew they had finished last in Group C. Barcelona ended the group stage with seven points in third place, guaranteed of a spot in the Europa League play-offs.
Ferran Torres scored twice and Marcos Alonso and teenager Pablo Torre grabbed a goal each for the Catalan club. The hosts got on the board with a pair of goals by Tomas Chory.
Barcelona’s only other group-stage victory had been the 5-1 win over Plzen in their opener. They then lost 2-0 at Bayern Munich and 1-0 at Inter Milan, who both advanced to the next round. Bayern beat Inter 2-0 at home on Tuesday for a sixth-straight victory in the group.
Ferran Torres, right, scored twice for Barcelona, who will miss the knockout stages for a second straight year.Credit:AP
A 3-3 draw at home against Inter then meant Barcelona needed the Italian team to stumble in their final matches, which didn’t happen. Barcelona also lost 3-0 at home to Bayern.
It was the first time since 1999 that Barcelona failed to advance to the knockout stage in consecutive years, coinciding with the departure of Lionel Messi to Paris Saint-Germain two seasons ago.
This season’s failure to advance was a humbling setback after Barcelona went on a spending spree to boost their squad in the hope of recovering some of that money with a deep run in the European competition. But not even signings like Robert Lewandowski and Raphinha were enough in the Champions League.
Lewandowski was not in the squad on Tuesday because of a minor back issue.
Barcelona trail Real Madrid by one point at the top of the Spanish standings with both Clasico rivals recording 10 wins from their first 12 games.
Watch every match of the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Europa Conference League on Stan Sport. Matchday 6 continues with Milan v Salzburg (Thursday 6:35am AEDT).
