Big guns march on

Juventus, Barcelona, Chelsea and Sevilla all reached the knockout stage of the Champions League with two matches to spare yesterday.

Alvaro Morata scored in injury time to send Juventus through with a 2-1 win over Hungarian team Ferencva´ros, ensuring the Italian champions finished at least second in group G.

Barcelona top the group and booked their spot in the last 16 for the 17th straight season with a 4-0 victory over Dynamo Kyiv.

Both Chelsea and Sevilla left it late to advance from group E. Olivier Giroud came off the bench to score an injury-time header as Chelsea won 2-1 at Rennes, and Munir El Haddadi scored in the final minute of stoppage time as Sevilla defeated Russian newcomer Krasnodar 2-1 away.

Erling Haaland maintained his remarkable scoring pace with two goals to put Borussia Dortmund within reach of the last 16 with a 3-0 win over Club Brugge.

Martin Braithwaite scored twice and Antoine Griezmann grabbed the other as Barcelona secured their fourth win in four games from group G.

Sevilla qualifying for the last 16 means the Spanish side cannot defend its Europa League title, as only the third-place finishers in each group enjoy the cushion of playing in Europe’s secondary competition.

Haaland took his tally to 16 goals in 12 Champions League games in Dortmund’s 3-0 win over Brugge, while Jadon Sancho scored an eye-catching free kick to put the German side on course to qualify from group F.

Former Dortmund forward Ciro Immobile scored twice on his return in Lazio’s 3-1 win over Zenit Saint Petersburg.

Bruno Fernandes scored two early goals in Manchester United’s 4-1 win over Istanbul Bas¸aks¸ehir, keeping the Premier League team on track to qualify from group H.

A penalty from Neymar was enough for PSG to scrape a 1-0 win against Leipzig in the other match in the group.