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| Darwin Nunez of Liverpool celebrates scoring the second goal with team mate Mohamed Salah during the UEFA Champions League group A match between Liverpool FC and SSC Napoli at Anfield on November 1, 2022 in Liverpool, United Kingdom. |
Liverpool ended Napoli’s 21-game unbeaten run but a 2-0 win on Tuesday was not enough to dislodge the Italians from the top spot in the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Champions League Group A.
Both sides were already guaranteed their places in the last 16, but Jurgen Klopp’s men again shrugged off their Premier League problems at Anfield stadium.
Mohamed Salah forced the ball over the line after Alex Meret just kept out Darwin Nunez’s header five minutes from time.
Nunez then added a second with the last kick of the game to secure a fifth consecutive Champions League win for Liverpool since losing 4-1 to Napoli in September.
The comprehensive margin of that win meant Napoli just needed to avoid defeat by a four-goal margin to secure the top spot.
Bayern Munich completed a perfect group stage by beating fellow qualifiers Inter Milan 2-0 thanks to goals from Benjamin Pavard and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting in their final Group C game.
Bayern ended top on 18 points, eight ahead of second-placed Inter with both teams having already reached the knockout stage.
Barcelona finished third on seven points, eliminated in the group stage and having to settle for a Europa League place for the second year in a row.
Tottenham Hotspur grabbed an unlikely last-gasp 2-1 victory at Olympique Marseille to reach the last 16 as Group D winners after a nerve-jangling conclusion on Tuesday.
The Londoners, who needed only to avoid defeat to go through, suffered a first-half siege and trailed to Chancel Mbemba’s header in stoppage time before the break.
However, French central defender Clement Lenglet proved to be Tottenham’s savior when he headed in his first goal for the club in the 54th minute to bring the scores level.
Spurs, who lost forward Son Heung-min due to a head injury in a torrid opening period, were a different team after the interval and took control after Lenglet’s equalizer.
Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg struck the crossbar for the visitors, but Marseille should have scored late on when Sead Kolasinac somehow missed an open goal with a header.
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| Clement Lenglet of Tottenham Hotspur scores goal during the UEFA Champions League group D match between Olympique Marseille and Tottenham Hotspur at Orange Velodrome on November 1, 2022 in Marseille, France. |
Hojbjerg then sealed the victory in stoppage time to put Tottenham top of the group and leave Marseille, who at one point in the evening were top, in fourth spot and out of Europe.
“To be honest, we expected that type of game. The Stade Velodrome is a very difficult place to deal with and I think we showed great personality,” Tottenham goalkeeper Hugo Lloris said.
“It was a tough night, a great battle and even more psychological battle because we could feel in the first half a team was playing without the fear to lose, it was Marseille, and in the second half we face a team with the fear to lose,” he added.
When is the Champions League last-16 draw?
The draw will be held on November 7, at the House of European Football at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.
Already qualified teams:
Seeded teams: Napoli, Porto, Bayern Munich, Tottenham, Chelsea, Manchester City
Unseeded teams: Liverpool, Club Brugge, Inter Milan, Eintracht Frankfurt, Borussia Dortmund
Qualified but final group stage place not yet determined: Real Madrid, PSG, Benfica
Who could still qualify?
AC Milan, Salzburg, RB Leipzig, Shakhtar
