ARSENAL, AC Milan and Barcelona all secured key UEFA Champions League victories last night, while Manchester City’s dismal streak was extended by a defeat at Juventus.
Bukayo Saka once again was the star for Arsenal as his brace helped secure a comfortable 3-0 home victory against AS Monaco that took the Gunners close to the knockout stage.
Mikel Arteta’s side began the fixture outside the top eight in the expanded 36-team league stage but are now third, among a cluster of clubs on 13 points.
England forward Saka took his season’s tally to nine goals in all competitions, with Kai Havertz scoring the third goal against the French side, who are 16th with 10 points.
In Germany, Ferran Torres came off the bench to score twice, including an 85th-minute winner, as Barcelona earned a tough 3-2 victory at Borussia Dortmund to close in on qualification.
In a thrilling five-goal second half, Torres struck twice in 10 minutes after coming on in the 71st minute to lift Barcelona to 15 points, in second place with two games remaining in the league phase.
Dortmund twice came from a goal down with Guinea striker Serhou Guirassy scoring both goals, but they could not do it a third time after Torres grabbed his second after being set up by Lamine Yamal.
The Germans dropped to ninth in the standings on 12 points, with the top eight earning automatic qualification to the round of 16.
In Italy, AC Milan needed substitute Tammy Abraham’s late goal to secure a 2-1 win over Red Star Belgrade at the San Siro to make it four wins in a row for the Serie A side.
Abraham netted the 87th-minute winner after he and Super Eagles winger Samuel Chukwueze came on in the first half for Alvaro Morata and Reuben Loftus-Cheek respectively as Milan climbed up to 12th spot on 12 points. Red Star are 31st with three points.
Meanwhile, Manchester City’s terrible run of form continued with a 2-0 defeat at Juventus, with Dusan Vlahovic and Weston McKennie netting for the Italian side in a major blow to the English champions’ hopes of earning a top-eight spot in the group stage of Europe’s elite competition.
City, who won the 2023 UEFA Champions League trophy, continued a poor run of form which has brought only one victory in their last 10 fixtures across all competitions.
With the result, Juventus rose to 14th spot on 11 points, while City are 22nd with eight.
The sides finishing between ninth and 24th will go into the playoffs for spots in the round of 16.
RESULTS
Atletico Madrid 3-1 Slovan Bratislava
LOSC Lille 3-2 Sturm Graz
AC Milan 2-1 Red Star Belgrade
Arsenal 3-0 Monaco
Borussia Dortmund 2-3 Barcelona
Feyenoord 4-2 Sparta Praha
Juventus 2-0 Manchester City
Benfica 0-0 Bologna
Stuttgart 5-1 Young Boys
