BORUSSIA DORTMUND BRUSHED off their nightmare Bundesliga form to maintain their perfect Champions League record and book their place in the knockout phase with Tuesday’s 4-1 rout of Galatasaray.
Dortmund are second from bottom of the German top flight following the worst start to a season in the club’s history and have lost their last five matches in a row, but are one of the first teams into the last 16 in Europe’s elite club competition.
Borussia remain top of Group D with four wins from four and posted another convincing victory against Cesare Prandelli’s Galatasaray having won 4-0 in Istanbul a fortnight ago.
Arsenal’s 3-3 draw at home to Anderlecht leaves Dortmund five points clear of the Gunners atop the table and odds-on to finish as group winners.
The game was held up twice in the second half by crowd trouble as Galatasaray fans threw fireworks onto the pitch, then set off a flare in the stands in the closing few minutes.
Juve relaunch last-16 bid with Olympiakos win
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Juventus relaunched their Champions League last-16 bid with a nervous 3-2 win over Olympiakos in Turin on Tuesday when visiting goalkeeper Roberto saved a last-minute penalty from Chilean Arturo Vidal.
Andrea Pirlo, on his 100th Champions League appearance, broke the deadlock with a trademark free-kick on 21 minutes but the hosts were stunned three minutes later when central defender Alberto Botia beat Gianluigi Buffon with a glancing header from a corner.
Juve needed a win, preferably with a two-goal cushion, to boost their qualification chances ahead of an away trip to Swedish champions Malmo and their final fixture at home to Atletico Madrid.
But despite replying to Delvin N’Dinga’s glancing header on the hour with two goals in the space of a minute, Vidal spurned the chance to secure a 4-2 win when Roberto saved his penalty with the final kick of the game after Carlos Tevez had been felled in the box.
Juventus remain third in Group A but are now level on points with Olympiakos, with both trailing leaders Atletico by three points.
Talisca revives Benfica’s Champions League knockout hopes
Meanwhile, a goal by impressive young Brazilian Talisca revived Portuguese champions Benfica’s hopes of reaching the Champions League knock-out stages for the first time in three seasons as it secured a 1-0 win over Monaco.
Talisca, 20, struck eight minutes from time in an entertaining match which saw the French side slip to their first defeat in seven matches and saw Benfica record their first win of this season’s competition to move on to four points, still bottom of the table but just one point off second-placed Monaco.
Leaders Bayer Leverkusen, who beat Zenit St Petersburg 2-1 earlier on Tuesday, are four points clear of Monaco with two games remaining.
Champions League results
Group A
Juventus (ITA) 3 (Pirlo 21, Roberto 65-og, Pogba 66) Olympiakos (GRE) 2 (Botía 24, Ndinga 61)
Malmo (SWE) 0 Atletico Madrid (ESP) 2 (Koke 30, Raul Garcia 78)
Group B
Basel (SUI) 4 (Embolo 34, Gonzalez 41, Gashi 59, Suchy 65) Ludogorets Razgrad (BUL) 0
Real Madrid (ESP) 1 (Benzema 27) Liverpool (ENG) 0
Group C
Zenit St. Petersburg (RUS) 1 (Rondon 89) Bayer Leverkusen (GER) 2 (Son Heung-min 68, 73)
Benfica (POR) 1 (Anderson Talisca 82) Monaco (FRA) 0
Group D
Arsenal (ENG) 3 (Arteta 25-pen, Sanchez 29, Oxlade-Chamberlain 58) Anderlecht (BEL) 3 (Vanden Borre 61, 73-pen, Mitrovic 90)
Borussia Dortmund (GER) 4 (Reus 39, Papastathopoulos 55, Immobile 74, Kaya 85-og) Galatasaray (TUR) 1 (Balta 70)
