LONDON: Three red cards, on-field brawls, countless chances and a flurry of late goals. A wild, win-or-bust match in the Champions League between FC Porto and Atletico Madrid had it all on Tuesday.

In the end, it was Atletico celebrating a place in the last 16 of Europe’s top club competition with a 3-1 win, emerging from a three-way fight for qualification in the final round of group games.

On a night when Ajax striker Sebastien Haller became an unlikely history-maker, Real Madrid finished top of their group, and Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi ran amok for Paris St Germain, much of the focus on the next-to-last night of group play was on the Group ‘B’ finale as three teams vied to be runners-up to Liverpool.

Porto started the night in second place, a point ahead of Atletico and AC Milan, who hosted Liverpool.

Milan wound up losing 2-1, meaning the winner of the all-Iberian match at the Estadio do Dragao would advance. It turned ugly, unsurprisingly given the stakes, with Porto having two players red-carded after Atletico had Yannick Carrasco sent off.

Atletico were outplayed for much of the game but was opportunistic in front of goal, with Antoine Griezmann scoring the 56th-minute opener at a corner before they then had Carrasco sent off for wrestling Otavio to the ground.

With tempers flaring, Porto were also reduced to 10 men as Wendell was sent off for elbowing Atletico’s Matheus Cunha in the neck, before their substitute goalkeeper Agustin Marchesin also saw red.

With Porto pushing forward in search of the draw they needed to qualify, Atletico got their second goal on the break in the last minute through Angel Correa before Rodrigo De Paul scored their third in injury time. Sergio Oliveira’s penalty was a mere consolation for Porto.

Atletico finish second in Group ‘B’, a huge 11 points behind Liverpool, who became the first English team to win all six of their group games in a single Champions League campaign by beating Milan at San Siro despite fielding a virtual reserve side.

Milan had to win to stand a chance of going through and they went ahead midway through the first half through Fikayo Tomori.

Mohamed Salah did start for the visitors and he equalised in the 36th minute before Divock Origi — who scored a stoppage-time winner in the Premier League at the weekend — made it 2-1 10 minutes into the second half, heading in after Sadio Mane’s shot was saved.

“It’s an exceptional performance,” said manager Jurgen Klopp. “With that many changes, the boys have to be confident enough to show how good they are. I saw so many good things tonight, it was unbelievable.”

Milan finish bottom of the group in their first Champions League campaign since 2013-14, with Porto parachuting into the Europa League.

MBAPPE, MESSI DOUBLES

Messi and Mbappe had some fun in PSG’s group closer. It was anything but fun for Manchester City.

City manager Pep Guardiola selected a strong lineup for the 2-1 loss at RB Leipzig despite his team being guaranteed as the Group ‘A’ winners and in the middle of a busy domestic schedule.

City were sloppy at the back in conceding goals to Dominik Szoboszlai and Andre Silva before having right-back Kyle Walker sent off for a rash tackle from behind on Silva, meaning the team will be missing a key defender for the first leg of the last 16.

Riyad Mahrez scored City’s goal in a match played without fans because of coronavirus restrictions.

Leipzig finished third to stay in European competition.

It was a stroll for second-place PSG in a 4-1 win over Club Brugge, with Mbappe scoring twice inside the first seven minutes and — at 22 years and 352 days — becoming the youngest player to reach 30 goals in the competition.

Messi added his own double, the first a curler from outside the area and the second a penalty, and has now scored against a record-extending 38 different teams in the Champions League.

HISTORIC HALLER

Haller’s first season in the Champions League has been a historic one.

By converting an eighth-minute penalty for Ajax in their 4-2 win over Sporting Lisbon, the Ivory Coast striker became only the second player — after Cristiano Ronaldo in 2017-18 — to score in all six matches of a single group stage. He finished with 10 goals in total.

It’s quite the rise to prominence for Haller, who was sold to Ajax by West Ham in January 2020 because he was struggling to get in the English team. Then, after joining Ajax, the Dutch club accidentally omitted Haller’s name when submitting their squad for the Europa League so he couldn’t be registered for the competition.

Brazilian duo Antony and David Neres added further goals and Steven Berghuis was also on target as Ajax, already sure of winning Group ‘C’, finished on a maximum 18 points. Sporting had already secured second place.

Indeed, with Borussia Dortmund certain of third place before their 5-0 thrashing of 10-man Besiktas. with Donyell Malen getting the opener and Marco Reus scoring a brace before Erling Haaland came off the bench to score two headers in the second half, the last round of matches in the group didn’t affect the standings.

REAL IN FIRST

In a match that determined which team finished top of Group ‘D’, Real Madrid beat Inter Milan 2-0 despite being without injured star striker Karim Benzema at the Santiago Bernabeu.

Toni Kroos and Marco Asensio, with a brilliant curler that flew in off the far post, scored the goals for the 13-time European champions.

Inter, who were already sure of a top-two finish, had Italy midfielder Nicolo Barella sent off for lashing out at Eder Militao.

“Our objective is to go all the way, not just reach the last 16,” said Real coach Carlo Ancelotti.

Moldovan debutants Sheriff Tiraspol had already secured third place before Boban Nikolov’s injury-time goal earned them a 1-1 draw at bottom side Shakhtar Donetsk, for whom Fernando had opened the scoring.

Published in Dawn, December 9th, 2021