Champions League: Celtic 1 (Benito OG 86) Young Boys 0
Celtic qualified for the play-off phase of the Champions League after a late own goal earned a deserved 1-0 win over Young Boys.
Visiting captain Loris Benito knocked the ball into his own net in the 86th minute after substitute Adam Idah’s effort was saved by goalkeeper Marvin Keller following Reo Hatate’s excellent through ball.
Kyogo Furuhashi had three first-half goals disallowed and Arne Engels had a penalty saved as Celtic dominated the first hour against the Swiss side, who remain without a point at the foot of the table.
Celtic had to negotiate the closing stages without Daizen Maeda, who saw a yellow card upgraded to red following a VAR review after he kicked out at Mohamed Ali Camara.
A draw would have left Celtic potentially needing a result at Villa Park next Wednesday but the late goal propelled them up to 18th place, level on 12 points with Juventus, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund above them.
A win in Birmingham next week would likely see Celtic claim one of the seeded places in the play-off round, if not a top-eight finish and direct entry to the last 16.
The late slice of luck was no less than Celtic deserved for a performance that was full of verve for 60 minutes. Midfielders Callum McGregor, Engels and Hatate dominated play and Celtic found spaces through the visiting back four right from the start.
Maeda and Nicolas Kuhn got around the outside with regularity but the deliveries were not quite falling for Furuhashi.
The Japan forward’s first offside goal came inside six minutes following a pass from Engels and Kuhn soon got in behind following McGregor’s pass but saw his shot deflected wide after skipping past three men.
Hatate and Furuhashi shot wide from half-chances before Kasper Schmeichel made his only first-half stop to beat away Joel Monteiro’s 25-yard strike.
Maeda claimed for a penalty after getting in front of Cheikh Niasse and Hatate had a shot pushed past the post after driving play from McGregor.
Furuhashi then had two goals chalked off inside two minutes just after the half-hour mark. The first was initially given after McGregor robbed Niasse and set up the centre-forward to wrong-foot the goalkeeper but Norwegian referee Rohit Saggi penalised the Celtic captain for a foul following a VAR review.
Furuhashi was then flagged offside again after converting Maeda’s cross from close range.
Engels’ weak penalty was saved in the 41st minute after Greg Taylor had his shirt pulled but the Belgian shook off the miss to create several chances from set-pieces before the break. Furuhashi and Hatate, twice, came close.
The pressure continued after the interval. Engels, Maeda and McGregor had shots saved and Auston Trusty headed against the bar before Celtic almost got hit by a sucker punch only for Schmeichel to pull off a brilliant double stop from Darian Males.
Celtic’s energy levels started to dip and Brendan Rodgers made some changes in a bid to regain the impetus, Alex Valle and Paulo Bernardo coming on midway through the half before Idah replaced Furuhashi.
There was no immediate impact and visitors threatened from some set-pieces but Idah’s run in behind led to the goal and Schmeichel saved from Sandro Lauper in the final second of stoppage-time.
PSG 4 (Dembele 56, Barcola 60, Neves 78, Ramos 90+3) Manchester City 2 (Grealish 50, Haaland 53)
Manchester City are in danger of crashing out of the Champions League after surrendering a 2-0 lead to lose 4-2 at Paris Saint Germain.
Jack Grealish looked to have put the 2023 winners on course for a crucial victory at the Parc des Princes on Wednesday after coming off the bench to score and set up another goal for Erling Haaland.
Yet in a dramatic second half, the hosts quickly levelled through Ousmane Dembele and Bradley Barcola before a Joao Neves header put PSG ahead 12 minutes from time.
Goncalo Ramos had the final say in a pulsating contest played in pouring rain when his fine strike was given after a lengthy VAR check in stoppage time.
The defeat leaves City outside the top 24 in the league phase of the competition and needing to beat Club Brugge in their last game next week to reach the play-off round.
PSG, who had been the better team in the first half and had a goal disallowed, leapfrogged Pep Guardiola’s side to keep their own chances of progressing alive.
With both sides having struggled in the competition, there had been an obvious tension in the build-up but PSG, feeding on a lively atmosphere, started well.
Desire Doue tested Ederson in the opening minutes and Ruben Dias was booked for crudely halting a charge from the dangerous Achraf Hakimi. Neves headed over from the resulting free-kick.
City threatened when Phil Foden had a shot blocked and Kevin De Bruyne’s follow-up was pushed away by Gianluigi Donnarumma. Haaland also headed tamely at the keeper.
PSG went close again when a long-range Hakimi effort was saved by Ederson and Vitinha had a shot deflected wide. Fabian Ruiz looked certain to score from the resulting corner but Josko Gvardiol cleared off the line.
City survived a major scare on the stroke of half-time as Nuno Mendes got behind the defence and squared across the box for Barcola to tee up Hakimi. The Moroccan drove powerfully into the net but City were reprieved moments later when VAR showed Mendes marginally offside in the build-up.
The visitors capitalised on the reprieve as they stunned PSG with two goals inside the opening eight minutes of the second half.
Their first came after Manuel Akanji beat Mendes to set up Bernardo Silva. The Portuguese’s effort was blocked by Donnarumma but Grealish, introduced at the break, pounced on the rebound to smash home from close range.
Grealish was involved again as City doubled their lead moments later. This time he was the provider as his cutback was deflected into the path of Haaland at the back post. The Norwegian made no mistake with a typically emphatic finish.
Yet as quickly as City had built their position of strength, they managed to squander it.
PSG’s own half-time substitute Dembele was soon into the action, racing on to a ball from Barcola on the left to sweep home after 56 minutes.
That lifted the crowd and City were undone again on the hour as Doue struck the bar. The ball bounced back towards Barcola and he deftly clipped back over Ederson to score off the post.
PSG now had the bit between their teeth and went close again as Neves fired narrowly over and Dembele thumped another effort against the woodwork.
City were struggling to get the ball out of their own half as PSG continued to attack in waves.
They broke through again in the 78th minute as Neves stooped low to meet a Vitinha free-kick and head past Ederson.
There was no way back for City, who had another let-off when a Dembele goal was disallowed. VAR did not come to their rescue in stoppage time, however, as Ramos’ effort was ruled onside.
Arsenal 3 (Rice 2, Havertz 66, Odegaard 90+1) Dinamo Zagreb 0
Arsenal all but secured a spot in the Champions League knockout phase as they outclassed visitors Dinamo Zagreb 3-0 on Wednesday thanks to with goals from Declan Rice, Kai Havertz and Martin Odegaard.
Rice struck inside the opening two minutes after a clever lay-off by Havertz and the German put Arsenal in full control with a 66th-minute header. Captain Odegaard put the icing on the cake with a third in stoppage time.
Victory lifted Arsenal to third in the standings with 16 points and with the top eight qualifying automatically for the last 16 only an extraordinary sequence of results in next week’s final round of group matches could deny Mikel Arteta’s side.
Arsenal travel to Girona for their final game.
Defeat for Fabio Cannavaro’s Dinamo side left them in the elimination places ahead of their last match at home to AC Milan.
Other results:
Feyenoord 2 Bayern Munich 0
Real Madrid 5 RB Salzburg 1
Milan 1 Girona 0
Sparta Prague 0 Inter Milan 1
RB Leipzig 2 Sporting Lisbon 1
Shakhtar Donetsk 2 Brest 0
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