Arsenal advance, Chelsea slump in Champions League

Arsenal clinched a place in the second round of the Champions League yesterday with a 2-1 win over Borussia Dortmund, but the Gunners could find themselves the only English club in the knockout stage.

A day after Manchester United and Manchester City both missed the chance to advance, Chelsea conceded a last-minute goal and lost 2-1 at Bayer Leverkusen. The Blues risk missing out on the last 16 for the first time since Roman Abramovich bought the club in 2003.

Leverkusen advanced alongside Arsenal (3-0-2), who won 2-1 against visiting Borussia Dortmund (1-3-1) on two goals by Robin van Persie. APOEL (2-0-3) tied 0-0 at Zenit St Petersburg (2-1-2) to become the first Cypriot club to make it past the group stage.

AC Milan (2-1-2) rallied twice, but Xavi Hernandez scored in the 63rd minute to give defending champions Barcelona (4-0-1) a 3-2 road win that clinched first place in Group H. Lionel Messi scored his 25th goal of the season and assisted in the final goal for Barcelona, which extended their unbeaten streak to 27 games - one shy of the club record.

With both teams already secured a spot in the second round, Mark van Bommel's own goal in the 14th minute gave Barcelona the lead, but Zlatan Ibrahimovic tied the score four minutes later against his former club.

Messi's twice-taken penalty kick, his 25th goal of the season, put the defending champions ahead in the 31st, but Kevin-Prince Boateng made it 2-2 in the 54th. Xavi scored off a pass from Messi through several defenders in the 63rd.

Significant win

"If this game had been more decisive then I would have focused more on defence," Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola said. "Milan is a great team with a great history. It really means something to win here."

Valencia (2-1-2) cruised to a 7-0 rout of Genk (0-3-2) for the biggest Champions League win by a Spanish team, Porto (2-2-1) kept alive their hopes of advancing with a 2-0 victory at Shakhtar Donetsk (0-3-2) and Olympiakos (2-3) won 1-0 at Marseille (2-2-1).

Dortmund dominated the opening exchanges against Arsenal and had the home side under pressure, even after injuries to Sven Bender and Mario Goetze midway through the first half.

Van Persie headed in Alex Song's 49th-minute cross at the far post and tapped in with four minutes left to give him 21 goals this season.

Shinji Kagawa scored for the German champions in injury time, but Arsenal clinched Group F.

"The level has gone up a lot. You never win an easy game in the Champions League," Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said. "I have 150 games in the Champions League as a manager and they are never easy."