Adriano’s treble seals Shakhtar’s progress
SHAKHTAR Donetsk secured their progress into the last 16 of the Champions League with a 5-2 win over Nordsjaelland in Denmark.
The home side twice took the lead through Morten Nordstrand and Kasper Lorentzen, but Shakhtar were quick to equalise and ultimately eased to victory through a Luiz Adriano hat-trick and two from Willian early in the second half.
However, Adriano's achievement was marred by the manner of his first goal.
The visitors were returning the ball to their opponents following a break for injury, but Adriano had failed to read the script and ran onto the ball with the home defence static and rounded the goalkeeper to score.
Bayern Munich and Valencia played out the 1-1 draw that both teams needed to guarantee their progress from Group F.
Sofiane Foghouli struck a 77thminute opener for the Spaniards and that was cancelled out five minutes later by Thomas Muller.
The two sides had been all but certain of qualification following BATE Borisov's earlier 2-0 home defeat to Lille, who got their first points in the group through goals from Djibril Sidibe and Gianni Bruno.
“I am happy of course — I scored an important goal on my European debut,” said Bruno.
“I would not have been able to shine if our whole team had not had a great game.”
Galatasaray's 1- 0 win over Group H winners Manchester United leaves them neck and neck with Romanians Cluj going into next month's final round of matches after Cluj beat Sporting Braga 3-1.
Burak Yilmaz grabbed a potentially crucial 54th-minute winner for the Turks in Istanbul.
Rui Pedro hit a first-half hattrick for Cluj. Alan replied for the Portuguese side, who saw their slim hopes ended with their defeat.
The teams both have seven points going into the final games, when Cluj travel to Manchester United and Galatasaray visit Braga.