Farewell to Atletico, first place for Manchester United, PSG, Roma

Madrid, Dec. 6 (IANS): Atletico de Madrid confirmed their exit from the UEFA Champions League with a 1-1 draw at Chelsea, allowing Roma to advance to the round of 16 as group winners along with Paris St-Germain, despite their 1-3 defeat in Munich. Manchester United, who won 2-1 at home to CSKA Moscow, also advanced.
Juventus and Basel also completed their passage to the next round, joining Barcelona, Besiktas, Manchester City, Tottenham, Manchester United, Paris Saint Germain and Roma who qualified as group winners, and Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Juventus and Basel as runners up, reports Efe.
There are only four Round of 16 spots left to play for on Wednesday night ahead of the draw on December 10 in Nyon.
Two will come from group E (one of Liverpool, Sevilla and Spartak Moscow), one from F, with the clash between Shakhthar Donetsk and Naples, and another from group G, either Porto or Leipzig.
Having already secured first place in Group D, Barca rested Argentine star Lionel Messi as they faced Sporting CP at the Camp Nou, defeating the Portuguese side with a goal from Paco Alcacer and another when Sporting CP’s former Barcelona man Jeremy Mathieu scored an own goal on Tuesday.
Juventus grabbed the group’s second place with a 2-0 away victory over Olympiakos.
At Old Trafford, Manchester United sealed their place at the top of Group A by beating CSKA Moscow 2-1 with goals from Romelu Lukaku and Marcus Rashford in the 64th and 66th minute, respectively.
Winning 2-0 against Benfica in Lisbon, Basel followed Manchester United to the round of 16. Elyounoussi and Oberlin sealed the victory and qualification for the Swiss team. In Group B, Paris Saint-German had all but secured top spot, with Munich needing to win by four goals to leapfrog them. The Bavarians’ 3-1 victory was not enough, and they will follow the Parisians into the round of 16 in second place.
Anderlecht secured the group’s third place and a Europa League berth with a 1-0 victory in Glasgow against Celtic.