English clubs are on the march again in the Champions League

Redskins put RB Guice on IR

The Washington Redskins are shutting down injured running back Derrius Guice for the rest of the season. Washington on Tuesday put Guice on season-ending injured reserve with a left knee injury. The second-year back injured the knee in the Redskins' most recent loss Sunday at Green Bay. At 3-10 and eliminated from playoff contention, the Redskins had no reason to risk rushing Guice back from his latest injury. This is the same knee Guice tore the ACL in during a preseason game in August 2018. Guice also missed time earlier this season with a right knee injury. "This guy's upbeat, he's positive, he's got more energy than the entire building, so it ain't going to hamper him or stifle him or hold him back by any means," interim coach Bill Callahan said Monday. "I love the guy. I love his energy and what he brings to the table every day, how he comes into the meeting room, how he goes to the practice field. He's just a bundle of energy and he gives us a catalyst that most teams don't have. I'm proud to have him on our team and I'm proud to coach him." The Redskins promoted running back Josh Ferguson from the practice squad to fill Guice's spot on the roster. They also activated Danny Johnson off the physically unable to perform list to replace fellow cornerback Simeon Thomas, who was suspended four games for violating the NFL's substance abuse policy.

Jets won't discipline Bell for bowling

Le'Veon Bell will be spared from team discipline after his weekend bowling outing. The New York Jets running back missed the team's 22-21 win Sunday against Miami while continuing to recover from the flu, which kept him out of practice for two days last week. Coach Adam Gase said Tuesday that team doctors determined Bell was still ill Saturday, so the team ruled him out for the game. "He wanted to play," Gase said. "But they told him he was still contagious. They didn't want him around all the other guys because they thought it could spread through the team." Bell was sent home and told to stay away from the team while he recovers — but didn't violate any team rules. "What am I going to discipline him for?" Gase said. "I can't tell him you have to stay in your house." The New York Post reported Monday night that Bell went to a New Jersey-area bowling alley Saturday night and stayed there until it closed around 1 a.m. Bell said Tuesday he had several family members and friends in town to watch him play against the Dolphins, but when he was ruled out for the game Saturday doctors told him to get out of the house and get his body moving a little. So, he and his friends and family went bowling — and Bell is surprised his night out at the alley became a story. "Oh, yeah, I am, for real," Bell said. "The bigger surprise was I rolled a 251 off the flu. That's the bigger surprise — a career high." Bell said he lost 8 or 9 pounds from the illness, but is feeling a lot better and expects to play Thursday night at Baltimore. "Yeah, he better," Gase said. "We're out of guys." That's because running back Bilal Powell is also dealing with the flu and left the game against Miami during the winning drive with an ankle injury that was expected to keep him off the field Tuesday. “It's serious enough where if he didn't have the flu, he probably wouldn't play,” Gase said. Powell ran for 74 yards, a team high this season, on 19 carries in Bell's absence. Ty Montgomery had 31 yards on nine attempts. Josh Adams is the only other running back on the roster. Gase said he would have preferred Bell stayed home Saturday night and continued recovering, and acknowledged that the running back being out in public and bowling just hours after being ruled out for the game the next morning because of an illness was bad optics. “Yeah,” Gase said with a slight laugh, “I would say so.” Gase spoke to Bell later Tuesday about the situation, and Bell said he could see there being an issue if he had been cleared to play Sunday and still went out Saturday night. Gase pointed out to him that people could still see his actions and take them the wrong way.

Falcons place Ridley, Trufant on IR

Receiver Calvin Ridley and cornerback Desmond Trufant were placed on injured reserve Tuesday by the Atlanta Falcons. Ridley (abdominal strain) and Trufant (broken forearm) will miss the final three games of the season after being injured in Atlanta's 40-20 win over the Carolina Panthers. Trufant's latest setback wraps up an injury-plagued season. He already had missed four games with a toe ailment. Ridley finished his second season with 63 receptions for 866 yards and a team-high seven touchdowns, providing Matt Ryan with another effective target alongside Julio Jones.

Lions put WR Jones on IR

The Detroit Lions have put wide receiver Marvin Jones on injured reserve with an ankle injury. The team announced the move Tuesday. The Lions also signed defensive tackle Frank Herron to their active roster from the Miami Dolphins' practice squad. Detroit has lost six straight games and nine of its past 10. Jones was a bright spot at times, catching 62 passes for 779 yards and nine touchdowns. He had 1,101 yards receiving during the 2017 season but has been limited to just 22 games since then. The Lions have been decimated by injuries. Quarterbacks Matthew Stafford and Jeff Driskel have been out, forcing the team to turn to David Blough. Detroit also lost running back Kerryon Johnson.

NFL salary cap could top $200 million

The NFL salary cap for 2020 is projected to be in the range of $196.8 million to $201.2 million, making it likely for the cap to have an increase of at least $10 million for the seventh consecutive year. The 2019 salary cap is at $188.2 million. If the cap tops $200 million for the first time, it will have grown by roughly 40% since 2015, when it was at $143.3 million. Clubs were given the estimate Tuesday for the final season of the current collective bargaining agreement as NFL owners gathered for meetings in the Dallas area. Negotiations on a new labor deal were expected to be among the topics for owners to discuss. The updated salary cap figure is released when free agency opens along with the official new league year each March. The cap was $120.4 million in the first year of the labor deal in 2011. The cap has increased roughly 65% since then.

The English are on the march again in the Champions League.

Liverpool and Chelsea completed a sweep of Premier League clubs into the knockout stage of the Champions League on Tuesday, a season after England had two of its representatives in the final.

Liverpool, which beat Tottenham in the title match in June to become European champion for a sixth time, toughed out a 2-0 victory at Salzburg to advance as the winner of Group E and stay on course in its defense of the trophy.

It's shaping up to be a huge second half of the season for the Reds, who are also eight points clear in the Premier League in their pursuit of a first English championship in 30 years.

Chelsea was one of the teams to qualify from Group H after a 2-1 home victory over Lille under Frank Lampard, a Champions League winner with the London team in 2012 and in his first season as its manager.

Manchester City and Tottenham, the other English clubs competing in the Champions League, advanced last month with a game to spare.

It is the third straight season where England has provided four of the 16 representatives in the knockout stage, as teams in the lucrative Premier League start to show the benefit of having the biggest broadcasting revenues in soccer and some of the world's most highly rated coaches.

Napoli was one of four other teams to advance on Tuesday — but it wasn't enough to keep Carlo Ancelotti in a job. He was fired by the Italian team a few hours after its 4-0 win over Genk which sealed second place in the group containing Liverpool.

Borussia Dortmund, Valencia and Lyon also reached the last 16.

Ancelotti's final stand

Arkadiusz Milik did his best to save Ancelotti, scoring a first-half hat trick for Napoli before Dries Mertens added the fourth against a Genk team which fielded Maarten Vandevoordt — the youngest goalkeeper ever in the competition at 17 years, nine months and 10 days.

That secured the team second place behind Liverpool, which denied Napoli a place in the last 16 in the final group game of last season's competition. But it wasn't enough for Ancelotti, who had previously failed to lead Napoli to victory in any of its last nine games in his second season as its coach.

Like Napoli, Liverpool knew a win would see them progress but found things much tougher against Salzburg. Jurgen Klopp's team survived some early scares before scoring two goals in as many minutes from the 57th, through Naby Keita — who played for Salzburg from 2014-16 — and Mohamed Salah.

Salah's goal was exquisite, the Egypt forward breaking the offside trap to round the goalkeeper and score from an acute on the right with his weaker right foot.

Ajax's regression

Ajax came within a last-gasp Tottenham goal of reaching the final last season. It won't even be playing in the knockout stage this time around.

The Dutch club lost 1-0 at home to Valencia to drop from first place to third in Group H and fall into the Europa League.

Rodrigo scored the 24th-minute winner for Valencia, which is through to the last 16 for the first time since 2012-13.

Tammy Abraham, with a deft backheeled flick, and Cesar Azpilicueta scored Chelsea's first-half goals against already-eliminated Lille, which pulled one back late on through Loic Remy — a former Chelsea player.

Inter heartbreak

For the second straight season, Inter Milan was eliminated after failing to pick up a home win in the final round of the group stage.

A year after only drawing 1-1 to PSV Eindhoven to exit the competition, Inter lost 2-1 to an already-qualified Barcelona — which was without Lionel Messi and a number of other rested players. Ansu Fati scored Barca's winner and became, at 17, the youngest scorer in Champions League history.

Borussia Dortmund capitalized, eking out a 2-1 win over Slavia Prague to qualify ahead of Inter.