Real Madrid and Atalanta qualify for the playoffs, Inter's elimination and Neymar's hat-trick: how the Champions League group stage ended

Defeat from PSG in a postponed match

Match of the sixth round of the group stage of the Champions League between PSG and the team "Istanbul Bashakshehir" in Paris lasted for two days.

It was supposed to take place on Tuesday, but the teams went into the locker room in the 14th minute of the match after the words of the reserve referee Sebastian Koltsescu, who called the guest coach Pierre Vebo "black", which provoked a racist scandal.

As a result, the meeting was brought to an end only on Wednesday.

Football players and referees entered the field wearing identical T-shirts as part of an action against racism.

And before the game, everyone knelt on one knee in the central circle.

However, the postponement of the match did not help the guests to score points or at least fight for a draw.

PSG needed a victory to take first place in Group G, and Thomas Tuchel's charges left the opponent no chance, scoring five goals - 5: 1.

One of the main heroes of the confrontation was Neymar, who scored the third hat-trick of his career in the main European competition.

The Brazilian became the first footballer in Champions League history to score 20 goals for two different teams (Barcelona and PSG).

This season he has six goals in five meetings.

In turn, Kylian Mbappé, who scored a brace at the age of 21 years and 355 days, became the youngest player to score 20 goals in the Champions League.

The Frenchman surpassed Lionel Messi's achievement.

Class win for Atletico

As expected, he made his way to the playoffs of the Champions League and Atlético.

For this, the team needed to play a draw with Salzburg on the road.

And the Madrid team exceeded this task, scoring two unanswered goals.

The guests opened the scoring in the 39th minute thanks to the successful play of the set.

After filing Yannick Carrasco into someone else's penalty area, Mario Hermoso corrected the ball with his head into the far corner.

And shortly before the final whistle, all questions about the winner of the match were removed by the Belgian himself.

He rounded up Angel Correa's excellent diagonal from the right flank.

“Salzburg” did not manage to break through Jan Oblak, although the Austrian team struck 11 shots on the opponent's goal.

But only two of them hit the target, and shortly before Carrasco's goal, the hosts' midfielder Enok Mwepu shot into the post from outside the penalty area.

Benzema's fateful take

The most intriguing situation before the final round was in Group B, where all four teams were competing for the Champions League playoffs: Real, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Shakhtar and Inter.

At the same time, the Spanish and German teams in a face-to-face confrontation determined who would be in the 1/8 finals.

According to media reports, the head coach of Madrid Zinedine Zidane, in case of defeat, could be dismissed.

However, at a difficult moment his players got together and won the most important victory - 2: 0.

The fate of the confrontation was decided after half an hour of the meeting, for which Karim Benzema scored two similar goals.

In both cases, he closed the serve from the right flank with his head from close range.

After that, "Borussia" actually stopped resistance, and "Real" repeatedly could bring the score to a large one.

In several episodes, the Mönchengladbachs were saved by the goal posts, and the referee canceled the goal of Luka Modric after the discount of the same Benzema due to an offside position.

The Frenchman himself was noted for a number of statistical achievements.

First, he beat Brazilian Roberto Carlos' record for the most foreign appearances for Real Madrid (527).

Secondly, he became the fifth player in history to score 50 or more goals in the Champions League group stage matches.

Finally, the striker has brought the number of goals to ten with his head over the past five seasons in the tournament and is leading in this indicator, ahead of Robert Lewandowski (9) and Cristiano Ronaldo (8).

However, the defeat did not prevent Borussia from reaching the Champions League playoffs for the first time in history.

This became possible thanks to a goalless draw in the parallel group match between Inter and Shakhtar.

The footballers of the German team watched this meeting on a tablet directly on the field, and after it was over they did not hide their joy.

The Milanese, having scored six points, took the last line in the group and completed their performance in European competitions.

In a home match with the champion of Ukraine, they needed a victory, but they failed to achieve it.

The guests relied on defense and played three central defenders without nominal strikers.

As a result, in the first half, the hosts created only one dangerous moment.

In the seventh minute, Lautaro Martinez struck the crossbar from ten meters.

After the break, the pressure on the gate of Anatoly Trubin increased, but the young goalkeeper acted reliably.

He made four saves and played to zero in the third out of five matches of the current Champions League draw.

In the 89th minute, Romela Lukaku saved the Shakhtar team from a conceded goal, who unwittingly blocked the most dangerous shot by Alexis Sanchez.

Thus, the Pitmen managed to make their way to the Europa League playoffs.

In the 1/16 finals, they, together with Dynamo Kiev, will represent Ukraine.

16 points Manchester City

In Quartet C, the intrigue before the final round persisted only in the struggle for third place, which Olympiacos and Marseille claimed.

Both teams reached this stage with three points in the asset, exchanging home victories over each other (1: 0 and 2: 1).

Thus, in the event of a tie at the end of the group stage, thanks to an away goal, the Greek champion turned out to be higher.

For Olympiacos, the home meeting with Porto began unsuccessfully, as the guests earned and converted a penalty right at the beginning of the game.

For half an hour, Marseille moved up to the virtual third place, which held a goalless draw in the confrontation with Manchester City.

However, after the break, the English team scored three unanswered goals.

Ferran Torres opened the scoring, for whom this goal became the fourth in the current Champions League draw.

Then Sergio Aguero, who came on as a substitute, managed to distinguish himself.

Finally, in the 90th minute, Marseille defender Alvaro Gonzalez put an end to it, trying to knock the ball out of the line, sent it into the net of his own goal.

Meanwhile, Olympiacos conceded the second goal and remained in the minority, but this did not prevent the team from reaching the 1/16 finals of the LE.

The first place with 16 points was taken by Manchester City.

The Citizens are the fourth English side after Arsenal (2005/06), Manchester United (2007/08) and Tottenham (2017/18) to score so many points in the group stage of the European main competition.

Second place for "Atalanta"

Finally, in Quartet D the fate of the second ticket to the semifinals was determined by Ajax and Atalanta.

By the reporting match, the Bergamaski scored one point more, so a draw suited them in Amsterdam.

However, on the eve of the most important meeting, information appeared in the Italian media about a serious conflict in the team's camp.

Allegedly, head coach Gian Piero Gasperini is close to retirement, and the team is divided into two camps.

These rumors only fueled interest in the game.

The match itself turned out to be extremely cautious and not rich in scoring chances.

Ajax had the advantage, but rarely brought it to shots on goal.

Only in the second half did the hosts start to create dangerous moments.

The most real of them was missed by Davi Klassen.

After a subtle transfer of a partner to the penalty area, the midfielder found himself right in front of Pierluigi Gollini, but shot him in the leg.

A few minutes later, the Amsterdamites were in the minority after 18-year-old Ryan Gravenberch received a second yellow card.

Finally, all questions about the winner of the meeting in the 85th minute were removed by Luis Muriel.

Atalanta, whose colors are protected by Oleksiy Miranchuk, achieved victory with a minimum score and advanced to the Champions League playoffs.

Ajax, after participating in the semifinals of the tournament in 2018, takes the third place in the group for the second year in a row.

In turn, Liverpool lost points in a meaningless away match with Midtjylland - 1: 1.

Jurgen Klopp, as expected, provided a rest for a number of leaders, but still released Trent Alexander-Arnold, Diogo Jota and Mohammed Salah on the field.

It was the Egyptian who opened the scoring already at the 55th second.

The attacker forced the defender to make a mistake, took the ball away from him, went one-on-one with the goalkeeper and shot accurately.

This allowed Salah to become not only the fastest goal in the Champions League in Liverpool history, but also the team's top scorer in this tournament.

Mohammed has 22 goals in the Champions League with the Merseysides, and Steven Gerrard has 21.

However, the guests failed to keep the winning score.

After the break, the referee François Letexier, having watched the replay, awarded a penalty for a foul by the young goalkeeper Kivin Kelleher on the opponent, which was converted by Alexander Scholz.

At the end of the match, the referee team came to the fore again.

First, she canceled Scholz's second goal due to a slight offside position, and then did not count the ball to Takumi Minamino due to a handball with a partner.