UEFA Champions League 2015, Matchday 6: Live coverage and score updates

Arsenal pulled off an excellent 3-0 victory away at Olympiacos on Wednesday, leapfrogging the Greek champions in their Champions League group and qualifying for the knockout stages at the last opportunity. The Gunners headed into the match needing to score at least twice, yet turned in an impressively confident display to beat their tenacious hosts in an intimidating Athenian atmosphere.

That’s despite the fact Olympiacos made a good start to the match, startling Arsenal with their attacking intent. They had the first shot on goal within a couple of minutes, but Felipe Pardo’s effort fizzed wide. They remained a constant counter-attacking threat throughout the opening exchanges and went close again after 20 minutes when Sebá‘s shot sailed over the bar from the edge of the penalty area.

It was a nice finish for Giroud, and an equally nice through-ball slipped in under pressure from Joel Campbell. That goal puts Arsenal through to the knockout rounds as long as the current 2-0 scoreline holds up, but if Olympiacos make it 2-1 they’ll be the ones advancing. The Gunners will be hoping that Giroud can add a third, because by their current tiebreaker scenario, they’ll advance with any win at that point, and won’t need that tricky two-goal lead.

Barcelona is one of the best teams in the world right now, but no one told Javier Hernandez.

Reminder: Super boring, goal-needing, thin at striker Manchester United decided that they didn’t need Chicharito this summer. He’s scored 14 goals, including one against Barcelona in a must-win game. So let’s all laugh at them for a minute.

Instead, he decides to make Bernd Leno fall on his face, because he can do that kind of thing. Messi rules.

SB Nation presents: The Champions League explained in two minutes

Porto haven’t sprung any surprises in defense. In midfield, Danilo and Hector Herrera flank holding midfielder Giannelli Imbula, who’ll be tasked with limiting Oscar’s influence. The tricky Yacine Brahimi starts out wide, with Jesús Corona and Miguel Layún joining him in attack. It’s an intriguing lineup, with no nominal center forward named. It’ll be interesting to see how Chelsea deal with this unexpected threat.

Porto (4-3-3): Iker Casillas; Bruno Martins Indi, Maicon, Iván Marcano, Maxi Pereira; Danilo, Giannelli Imbula, Hector Herrera; Yacine Brahimi, Jesús Corona, Miguel Layún.

Arsenal are on the verge of dropping down in the UEFA Europa League if they can’t pull out a miracle on Wednesday. Not only do they need to win away to Olympiacos, but they need to do it by multiple goals.

The first meeting between these teams was in London, where Olympiacos ran out shocking 3-2 winners. Because of the Champions League’s tiebreaker rules, they have a massive advantage. Away goals are the third tiebreaker after points and goal differential, so Arsenal must win by two goals, or score three or more goals in a one-goal victory to progress to the Champions League knockout stages.

Chelsea’s Champions League adventure isn’t going as poorly as their Premier League campaign, but they’re still in some trouble. They’ll top Group G with a victory on Wednesday and finish second with a draw, but a loss could see them drop down into the Europa League.

In the first meeting between these teams, Porto got the better of the Blues. Willian scored one of his signature free kicks, hitting it so well that Iker Casillas didn’t even bother to move, but goals from Andre and Maicon were enough to grab the three points for Porto.

This was the highlight of Draxler’s day, an eye-popping run and a couple of lovely passes to set up Vieirinha’s goal, Wolfsburg’s second on the day and the one that shoved the match’s momentum firmly in their favor for almost all of the remainder of the game. It was a wonderful moment, and one that will surely show up on highlight reels set to awful music for the rest of his career, and it was one of many positive moments Draxler had during the game.

All game long, Draxler used both his skill making runs with and without the ball to unsettle Manchester United’s defense, and then used his passing skills to take advantage of their shakiness. He was the star of the show, the pièce de résistance of an impressive attacking display by the German side. And if he and Wolfsburg can keep this up, if they can prove that this isn’t just some flukish uptick that can’t be sustained, then not only will they rise far above their current fifth-place standing in the Bundesliga -- they’ll be a dark-horse contender for Champions League success.

Heading into this match, Roger Schmidt’s task sounds simple enough: win and hope AS Roma don’t win their match at home to Belarusian side BATE. However, beating Barça -- even when they’ve got room for complacency -- is never an easy task. The good news is that they’ve got home advantage on their side, but even that may not be enough against the reigning Champions League winners, and perhaps the best team on the planet at the moment.

Bayer will be without defender Jedvaj and midfielders Bender and Aránguiz, though there are no fresh concerns for coach Roger Schmidt.

While Olympiacos manager Marco Silva says that his team will be playing to win, the Greeks can actually afford to lose as long as the scoreline plays to their favor. Thanks to the admittedly rather convoluted UEFA tiebreaker rules, if Arsenal win 1-0 or 2-1, they’ll still be in third place, and banished to the doldrums of the Europa League. Arsenal have to win by at least two goals, or any win in which they score at least three goals. That could wind up being a tall task given Arsenal’s injury crisis, including the absence of key attacker Alexis Sanchez — especially doing so away from home, where the Gunners have failed to get even a draw in the Champions League this season.

Ramsey has been a vital cog for Arsenal all season long, but lately he’s been more important than ever. He’s dropped into a deeper role in their midfield out of need, but his ability to support and drive the attack will be key to this match since Arsenal need to win by multiple goals. Of course, that same need means that he’s going to need to be driving back just as hard to help shield the defense — and given Ramsey’s heavy usage this season and injury history, Arsenal fans will be holding their breath every time he pulls up short or hits the turf. If he struggles under the workload or breaks down and has to leave the match, it’s going to make Arsenal’s job much harder.

He added a second just over 10 minutes later, leaping above Malmö full-back Anton Tinnerholm to convert a fine Ronaldo cross. The Portuguese winger almost turned scorer within moments, though he couldn’t make a clean contact on Isco’s cross and the ball went behind for a goal kick.

However, it was only a matter of time before the tournament’s all-time top scorer got in on the act, and his goal came with just over five minutes of the half left. His free-kick wasn’t the most venomous, but still had enough to beat goalkeeper Johan Wiland and put the game out of sight before the break.

Manchester United had to win this match if they wanted to stay in the Champions League. A loss to Wolfsburg would see PSV Eindhoven knock Manchester to the Europa League with just a draw. Even a draw for Manchester wouldn’t be enough, because a win for PSV would still see them pass the English team in the standings. Instead of winning, though, Manchester’s defense broke down in several key moments, dooming them to a 3-2 loss to a high-flying Wolfsburg attack, and a win for PSV saw Manchester eliminated from the Champions League entirely.

The match got off to an absolutely flying start, with Wolfsburg pushing up high and hard to thwart Manchester United’s attempts to catch them off-balance in the early minutes. Unfortunately, the Germans missed their best chance to score in the first ten minutes, and not long after saw Manchester United take the lead thanks to some aggressive ball movement and a sumptuous throughball from Juan Mata to Anthony Martial.

Take that, haters and Madrid teammates. Ronaldo’s got a reason to keep taking these forever.

You’re not going to see too many assists better than that this season. It’s an excellent run and finish by Anthony Martial, too. Manchester United need a win to top their group and make sure they go through, so a 0-0 draw wasn’t going to help them on this day.

According to UEFA, their Swedish visitors Malmö have elected to line up in a 4-4-2. It’s a brave decision to only start two central midfielders when the odds are stacked so heavily against them, though we can probably expect them to sit compact and narrow, leaving little space between their defence and midfield. Coach Åge Hareide will look to go out with a bang: he’s leaving the club after this match.

Malmö FF (4-4-2): Johan Wiland; Yoshimar Yotún, Felipe Carvalho, Kári Árnason, Anton Tinnerholm; Tobias Sana, Enoch Kofi Adu, Oscar Lewicki, Erdal Rakip; Nikola Djurdjić, Jo Inge Berget.

Manchester United and Wolfsburg are going toe to toe with a lot on the line. Both teams are sending out as strong a starting lineup as they can -- injuries willing, in Manchester’s case -- as the winner of this match take first place in the group, while the loser risks falling into the Europa League depending on the result of the group’s other match between PSV and CSKA.

Manchester have elected to go with an attack-heavy formation with Marouane Fellaini and Bastian Schweinsteiger in the pivot of their midfield. Expect to see Fellaini spending a lot of time pushing forward to support the attack, a group that has under-performed in recent matches.

Manchester City have guaranteed their place in the Champions League knockout stages and Borussia Mönchengladbach can mathematically go no further, but both of these sides have plenty at stake when they face off at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday. The hosts are looking to overhaul their two-point deficit to group leaders Juventus, while Gladbach are hoping to hold off a late charge from Sevilla in order that they land in the Europa League knockouts.

City are favourites on paper, but it wouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone if Gladbach came away victorious. They’ve not lost a single game since their defeat to Manchester City in the Champions League’s second matchday, and incredibly ended Bayern Munich’s unbeaten streak in the Bundesliga on the weekend. City, meanwhile, have wobbled of late, and have won only two of their last six in all competitions. They’re very defensively vulnerable, and Gladbach are more than capable of taking advantage.