UEFA Champions League: Chelsea bow out

It did show, despite their eventual loss. Lille began the match brightly, generating several opportunities, but the wind was taken out of their sails when Marko Basa chopped Jonas down in the penalty area and the midfielder slotted the resultant spot kick past Steve Elena and his extraneous e to give Los Che a 1-0 lead.

With Bayern Munich in position to win against BATE Borisov, the game became essentially irrelevant for Valencia, who made half-hearted attempts to wrap up their victory while watching Lille flail around rather desperately in search of an equaliser. No more goals were forthcoming, and Valencia found themselves finishing second in the group. Lille, of course, are dead last.

Andrey Gorbunov was breached once again in the 66th minutes when Gomez turned provider with a perfect cross for Shaqiri to nod home, and then BATE’s semi-plight (the game didn’t matter for the visitors) was made worse with a second yellow and sending off for Denis Polyakov for a dive in the penalty area. Yegor Filipenko did get a consolation goal for the visitors, but by that point David Alaba had already made it 4-0 with a nicely-taken goal from outside the area.

All in all, a pretty good day for Bayern.

Galatasaray are into the knockout stages in the Champions League for the first time in a decade after they struck back from a goal down to get a win against SC Braga.

The earliest chance of the game came to Mossoro. The Brazilian first went on a penetrating run into the Galatasaray area only to be blocked off, before getting on the end of a cut-back to smash the ball wastefully over from 12 yards.

Messi didn’t move around much and the physios immediately brought on the cart, putting Messi on a stretcher and having him driven off the pitch. It’s way too early to tell how bad the injury is or if they were just trying to be careful with Messi, but there’s going to be a ton of people waiting desperately for an update on the health of one of the world’s best players.

Tito Vilanova had just used his final substitute so Barcelona were forced to finish the match with only 10 men.

The final day of the UEFA Champions League group stage is upon us and that means there are round of 16 place to sort out. Unlike yesterday’s dour slate, today offers intriguing matches that will have us scoreboard watching all day as we try to sort out who is through, who isn’t, who wins each group and even who is getting a Europa League place instead of the embarrassing last place finish.

All day long we will update this page with the scores of the matches as well as who stands where in the race for a knockout stage spot. These are live updates taking into account the current scores of matches so stay here and get the refresh button ready.

BATE, on the other hand, really need to settle on a standardised spelling of Alexander.

BATE Borisov starting lineup (4-3-2-1): Andrey Gorbunov; Maksim Bordachev, Yegor Filipenko, Artyom Radkov, Denis Polyakov; Aliaksandr Volodko, Dzmitry Baha, Edgar Olekhnovich; Alexsandr Hleb, Artem Kontsevoy; Vitali Rodionov.

Anyway, here are the lineups for a game that is highly unlikely to matter. Ah, the joy of Group Stage Match Day Six.

Substitutes from: Mickael Landreau, Mathieu Debuchy, David Rozehnal, Laurent Bonnart, Marvin Martin, Dimitri Payet, Nolan Roux.

Celtic are in the dreaded situation of needing to better another club’s result if they want to continue on in the Champions League. Benfica hold the tiebreaker over Neil Lennon’s side so to advance, they’ll need to do better than the Portgueuese side. Lennon has put out a first choice lineup and you know the fans at Celtic Park will be rare form. Worst case, a Europa League spot is guaranteed.

Spartak has put out a strong lineup as well despite the fact their European adventure is over no matter what happens today. Apparently they don’t feel like making Celtic’s task any easier today.

Even though they have nothing to play for, Braga have decided to field a strong team against Galatasaray. There is one ambiguous part of their lineup, down the left side. Ismaily and Elderson are both left backs and haven’t played much in midfield. Presumably, one will play left wing, though it’s not obvious which one. Hugo Viana is the only big star missing for the hosts.

Galatasaray, who are battling Cluj for a spot in the knockout round, are strong down the flanks and have picked an aggressive team. Attacking fullbacks Albert Riera and Emmanuel Eboue will probably do a lot of overlapping with their teammates on the wings and trying to find their two strikers with crosses.

Celtic doesn’t control their own destiny in the UEFA Champions League, but they’re not in a terrible position either. It would be a bit stunning to see Benfica grab all three points against a half-and-half A-B squad when they face Barcelona at the Camp Nou, so the Bhoys will expect to progress if they beat Spartak Moscow at Parkhead.

Spartak have nothing to play for except their pride -- not even their continued starting places. The Russian side has recently sacked manager Unai Emery and has not yet replaced him. They could come out a very motivated side, but it’s hard to concoct a situation in which a team would have any less to play for.

Barcelona injuries and suspensions

Out: Daniel Alves, Alexis Sanchez

Caretaker manager Rafa Benitez is already despised by Chelsea fans and while their current situation in the Champions League isn’t his fault, they’ll likely be happy to blame him should the Blues fail to advance today. Benitez, during his pre-match press conference, said his players need to show character and implied that some players are not performing at the needed level.

FC Nordsjaelland have managed only one point in the group and shouldn’t threaten Chelsea assuming the Blues are motivated to perform. They haven’t looked good at all since Roberto Di Matteo’s sacking but surely this is a match they should win.

Oh what a twisted web Shakhtar and Juventus could weave today in the Ukraine. Shakhtar is safely through to the Round of 16, while Juevntus simply need one point to secure their place. Sure winning the group is always preferable to improve your chances of avoiding a “big” club in the next round, but so making sure you’re in the next round is also good.

Of course, just what these teams will do is a mystery. They’ve said all the right things to the press but there’s a good chance they’ll just kick the ball around for 90 minutes and both start preparing for the knockout round draw.