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Barcelona, Atlético exit Champions League; Liverpool through

Published:Thursday | October 27, 2022 | 12:10 AM
Barcelona players react after Bayern Munich’s Benjamin Pavard scores his side’s third goal during the Champions League Group C football match at the Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona, Spain, yesterday.
AP
Barcelona players react after Bayern Munich’s Benjamin Pavard scores his side’s third goal during the Champions League Group C football match at the Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona, Spain, yesterday.

GENEVA (AP):

BARCELONA WERE eliminated from the Champions League on Wednesday even before enduring yet another 3-0 beating by Bayern Munich.

Atlético Madrid also went out following an extraordinary sequence around a penalty awarded by video review after the final whistle of its 2-2 draw with Bayer Leverkusen.

Atlético’s spot kick was saved before a frantic scramble in the goalmouth still could not bring the winning goal the Spanish club needed to prevent Porto advancing, thanks to its 4-0 win earlier at group leader Club Brugge.

Two Spanish powers who were part of the failed Super League launch last year will now miss out on the round of 16 of Europe’s top competition.

Liverpool’s passage into the knockout stage, with a game to spare, was relatively calm in a 3-0 win at Ajax to join leader Napoli in advancing from free-scoring Group A, which has had 44 goals in 10 games.

In more stoppage-time drama with video review, Tottenham thought it had won Group D when Harry Kane shot the ball into Sporting Lisbon’s net with seconds left in a game tied at 1-1.

A long VAR check ruled Kane had been offside, a furious Tottenham coach Antonio Conte was shown a red card, and the most finely balanced group goes to the final round next week with all four teams having a chance to advance.

Group leaders Tottenham play at last-placed Marseille next Tuesday while Eintracht Frankfurt – who beat Marseille 2-1 on Wednesday – go to Sporting.

European champion’s

The meeting between heavyweights in Barcelona was rendered meaningless before kickoff, when the five-time European champion’s hopes of advancing were ended by Inter Milan’s 4-0 win over Viktoria Plzeň in one of the early games.

Barcelona needed Inter to drop points and then still had to beat Bayern, who also beat the Spanish team 3-0 in two group meetings last season and won 2-0 at home in September.

The outcome was clear after Sadio Mané scored in the 10th minute. Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting doubled the lead before half-time and Benjamin Pavard added a third in stoppage time.

Barcelona, even after signing former Bayern star Robert Lewandowski, have now fallen short of the round of 16 in back-to-back seasons since Lionel Messi left in August 2021 for Paris Saint-Germain.

Bayern and Napoli are the only teams with five straight wins in this group stage, and the Italian team’s 3-0 win against Rangers ran its goal tally to 20.