Juve and Bayern earn top spots as Chelsea bow out

An own goal saw Juventus go through to the knockout stages of the Champions League as Group E winners as they edged out Shakhtar Donetsk 1-0 in Ukraine.

Olexander Kucher inadvertently turned Stephan Lichtsteiner's cross into his own net in the 56th minute, seeing Juve leapfrog Shakhtar at the top and rendering Chelsea's 6-1 thrashing of FC Nordsjaelland meaningless.

Both teams struck the post but Juventus could just about claim to be worthy winners as they had the better of the chances and ensured most of the game was played in Shakhtar territory.

It was too little, too late for Rafael Benitez tonight as he finally notched a win at Chelsea as they beat Nordsjaelland 6-1, but was powerless to stop them becoming the first Champions League holders to crash out of the competition before Christmas.

The fact Fernando Torres ended his goal drought in what was an expected romp against FC Nordsjaelland was also scant consolation for Benitez and the European champions, who were consigned to the Europa League after Juventus won at Shakhtar Donetsk to top Group E.

Torres even scored twice after David Luiz put Chelsea ahead from the spot at the end of a crazy spell of three penalties for handball in seven minutes that saw both Nicolai Stokholm and Eden Hazard miss.

Bayern Munich sealed top spot in Group F as they coasted to a 4-1 victory over BATE Borisov at the Allianz Arena.

BATE never threatened a repeat of their 3-1 upset earlier in the competition as a much-changed Bayern side did more than enough to ensure they will avoid the likes of Barcelona and Manchester United in the next round.

Mario Gomez, one of seven changes, opened the scoring on 21 minutes before Thomas Muller and Xherdan Shaqiri netted shortly after half-time to ensure a nerveless second period.

Substitute David Alaba completed the rout with seven minutes remaining before Egor Filipenko grabbed a BATE consolation.

By then, both sides had been reduced to 10 men with Bayern's Jerome Boateng seeing red for a poor challenge on Artem Kontsevoy in the 51st minute and Denis Polyakov following 18 minutes later for a second bookable offence.

The win saw Bayern pip Valencia to top spot, despite the Spaniards winning 1-0 in Lille thanks to a 37th-minute penalty from Oliveira Jonas after Marko Basa had impeded him.

Celtic's 2-1 win over Spartak Moscow meant Benfica missed out on a place in the last 16 despite a plucky 0-0 draw at Barcelona in Group G.

With no goals, the major incident at the Nou Camp was an injury to Lionel Messi, who was taken off on a cart after appearing as a second-half substitute, leaving Barca to finish with 10 men.

CFR Cluj's 1-0 win over Group G winners Manchester United was in vain as Galatasaray took second place after coming back to beat Braga 2-1.

Marcio Mossoro's curling shot gave Braga a first-half lead, but Burak Yilmaz and namesake Aydin struck in the second half to turn it around.

Manchester United warmed up for Sunday's crucial derby clash with City by going behind for an incredible 15th time this season.

And yesterday night there was no comeback either as Romanian champions CFR Cluj held on to condemn Sir Alex Ferguson to his 39th defeat in his 200th European Cup match as United boss, and his third in United's past five European home games.

If there was any meagre consolation at least the winner was not the result of shambolic defending, although Luis Alberto's magnificent second-half strike still was not enough for Cluj to join United in the last 16.

It was not the way Ferguson would have wanted to prepare for that eagerly-awaited trip across town, even if City are looking equally bereft just now, which is bizarre in itself given how far clear of the rest they have drawn.