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Business News/ News / Business Of Life/  Bayern Munich through, Arsenal get lifeline
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Bayern Munich through, Arsenal get lifeline

Barcelona too are through to the knockout round of the Champions League, while the English clubs inch closer to qualification

A group match between Olympiakos (blue) and Bayern Munich on 24 November in Germany. Photo: Christof Stache/AFPPremium
A group match between Olympiakos (blue) and Bayern Munich on 24 November in Germany. Photo: Christof Stache/AFP

NEW DELHI :

Bayern Munich’s sporting director Matthias Sammer says the club demonstrated their insatiable desire for silverware by beating Olympiakos 4-0 with 10 men on 24 November to reach the Champions League knockout stages as group winners.

Bayern raced into a 3-0 lead after just 20 minutes at Germany’s Allianz Arena thanks to goals by Douglas Costa, Robert Lewandowski and Thomas Mueller before defender Holger Badstuber was sent off.

The Germany defender marked his first start for seven months after injury with a red card, but Bayern barely broke stride as France winger Kingsley Coman added their fourth.

Bayern are eight points clear at the top of the Bundesliga and looking strong in Europe after clinching the top spot in Group F with a game to spare. They have made no secret of their desire to win the treble of Bundesliga, German Cup and Champions League with coach Pep Guardiola in the final year of his current contract.

“We are always hungry, which we saw again tonight," said Sammer.

Few teams will fancy facing Bayern in the knockout rounds but captain Philipp Lahm said it was important for his side to ensure they progressed in first place, thereby avoiding a last-16 clash with other group winners, including Barcelona. Germany defender Jerome Boateng said his side showed they deserve to be top of the group, having also routed Dinamo (5-0) and Arsenal (5-1) at the Allianz Arena in Europe this season.

“That was again another concentrated performance from us," said the centre back.

Meanwhile, Olympiakos remain second in the group, and a draw at home to Arsenal in a fortnight will guarantee that they go through at the English side’s expense. A tense and mouth-watering contest is on the cards when Arsenal, who kept their hopes alive by beating Dinamo Zagreb 3-0 at the Emirates Stadium in London, take on Olympiakos in this battle.

Mesut Özil headed the Premier League side ahead and Alexis Sánchez added a brace in the match against Dinamo, meaning the Gunners can qualify for the last 16 provided they win at Olympiakos on 9 December by at least a two-goal margin or by winning by a one-goal margin having scored three or more goals. The Gunners would have been eliminated if they had failed to beat the Croatians at the Emirates Stadium, or if Olympiakos got a draw against Bayern Munich.

Arsène Wenger insists Arsenal will complete their Champions League escape act.

“What we wanted is to come out of the game with a chance to qualify. We had to do our job and Bayern had to do theirs," Wenger said. “How big the chance to qualify is I don’t know, but I believe we can do it. “First of all we need to win. It might not be enough to just do that, but if you lead 1-0, you can win 2-0."

While Wenger is confident of Arsenal’s progress, he knows his team has lost on its last three visits to Olympiakos in the Champions League and this time the always-volatile Greek fans will be even more fired up. The Gunners boss expects a hostile atmosphere, but he doesn’t believe it will get out of hand despite the recent cancellation of the Panathinaikos against Olympiakos clash due to serious crowd trouble.

If Arsenal are to silence the Olympiakos crowd, they will need another influential performance from Sanchez, who set up Özil’s opener against Dinamo and then scored twice himself.

The situation appears rather more straightforward for Chelsea, the other English club in the fray. They cruised to a 4-0 win over Maccabi Tel Aviv in Israel with Gary Cahill, Willian, Oscar and Kurt Zouma on target. Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho was in playful but confident mood following the victory. The Portuguese manager began his post-match press conference by asking journalists for a calculator so he could figure out what Chelsea would have to do to qualify for the last 16.

After pausing and thinking about it, Mourinho said: “I know if we win, we finish first. If we lose we are going to the Europa League and with a draw second place."

The victory against an Israeli outfit that has lost every group game so far, means Chelsea are level on points with Porto and two ahead of Dynamo Kiev going into the last round of matches in two weeks.

Chelsea host Porto while the Ukrainian outfit are at home to Maccabi.

A string of poor league results left the English champions languishing down in 16th in the Premier League table, but the Portuguese manager, who has already won the Champions League with Porto in 2004 and Inter Milan in 2010, was buoyant.

“My future, I think there are no rumours. I want to stay in the club, the club wants me to stay. For us there are no rumours," he said.

However, he was forced to deny there was a problem between him and Spain international striker Diego Costa after the two were seen shouting at each other on the way into the changing rooms at half-time.

“I reacted, he did too. At half-time in the dressing room, a few kisses and a few cuddles. No problem," said Mourinho.

Holders Barcelona celebrated qualifying for the last 16 of the Champions League with another stunning display; Luis Suárez and Lionel Messi both scoring twice in a 6-1 win against Roma. Barcelona discovered they had qualified from Group E before they had even kicked a ball at the Camp Nou, the 1-1 draw between Bate Borisov and Bayer Leverkusen in Belarus ensuring their passage.

Fresh from crushing eternal rivals Real Madrid 4-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu at the weekend, they then produced a performance that the Italians could not live with.

Dani Alves set up Suárez to tap in the opener before Messi, captaining the side in his first start since returning from injury, made it two at the end of a superb move involving Neymar and Suárez. Suárez struck again just before the interval with a sweet volley and the rout continued in the second half as Neymar, Suárez and Messi all combined to give Gerard Piqué a tap-in. Neymar and Suárez then helped tee up Messi to get his second and Barca’s fifth on the hour and Adriano crashed in the sixth after Neymar’s penalty had been saved by Wojciech Szczesny.

Roma still have their destiny in their own hands, though; a win at home to Bate next month will see them finish second.

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Published: 25 Nov 2015, 07:39 PM IST
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