AC Milan and Leipzig claim final Champions League last 16 berths
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Berlin, 3 November 2022 (dpa/MIA) - Former winners AC Milan and RB Leipzig secured the last available round of 16 berths in the Champions League with emphatic wins in their deciding group showdowns on Wednesday.
Olivier Giroud scored twice and set up the others as Italian champions Milan defeated Red Bull Salzburg 4-0, and German Cup winners Leipzig prevailed with the same 4-0 scoreline at Shakhtar Donetsk.
Title holders Real Madrid and Benfica clinched first place in their groups on the concluding night of the group stage.
Real thrashed Celtic 5-1 while Benfica scored two late goals in a 6-1 at Maccabi Haifa to edge out Paris Saint-Germain, 2-1 winners at Juventus, because they scored three more away goals after both finished level on 14 points, a 16-7 goal difference, and drew their two games 1-1.
Real said that their coach Carlo Ancelotti now has the most wins in the elite event with 103, moving ahead of Manchester United's Sir Alex Ferguson. And playmaker Luka Modric became the oldest converter of a Champions League penalty at age 37 and 54 days.
The teams in the last 16 are group winners Napoli, Porto, Bayern Munich, Tottenham, Chelsea, Real, Manchester City and Benfica; plus runners-up Liverpool, Club Brugge, Inter Milan, Eintracht Frankfurt, AC Milan, Borussia Dortmund and PSG.
The draw is on Monday, with group winners to be pitted against runners-up.
The third-placed teams - Ajax, Bayer Leverkusen, Barcelona, Sporting, Salzburg, Shakhtar, Sevilla and Juventus - move into Europa League play-offs which are also drawn on Monday.
Seven-time winners Milan needed only a draw against Salzburg to reach the last 16 for the first time since 2013-14 but were in command from the outset and were 1-0 up from Giroud in the 14th.
The Frenchman then headed on to Rade Krunic to nod the second less than a minute after the restart, tapped the third himself in the 57th after a super solo from Rafael Leao around the penalty area, and fed Junior Messias to wrap up matters late.
"We stay humble, we will enjoy ourselves now and then see what comes from the draw. It was fantastic in front of our fans, I wanted to score, I hadn’t for some time and it was good for my confidence," Giroud told uefa.com.
Milan ended Group E in second behind Chelsea who claimed a 2-1 comeback victory against Partizan Belgrade from Raheem Sterling and Denis Zakaria.
In Group F, Leipzig got a comprehensive won over Shakhtar in Warsaw, with Christopher Nkunku firing the Germans ahead in the 10th minute shortly before Germany forward Timo Werner limped off with a ankle problem.
Andre Silva got the second shortly after the break, Dominik Szoboszlai made it 3-0 in the 62nd, and the fourth came in the 68th when Valeriy Bondar deflected Dani Olmo's shot into his own net.
"We worked hard for this. We didn't start well into the Champions League but now we are in the last 16. It feels good, 4-0, last 16," playmaker Emil Forsberg told streaming portal DAZN.
Leipzig beat Shakhtar for second behind Real who thrashed Celtic from first-half penalties by Modric and Rodrygo, Marco Asensio in the 51st, Vinicius Junior in the 61st and Federico Valverde another 10 minutes later.
Real goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois saved a spot kick from Josip Juranovic in the 35th but the Scots got a consolation goal from a classy late free-kick by Jota.
The other still open top spot went to Benfica in Group H with their big win in Haifa with five goals in the last half hour and the stoppage-time strike from Joao Mario making the difference.
PSG seemed to have locked up first place when Nuno Mendes fired their 2-1 winner at Juve into the far right corner right after coming on in the 68th but were caught at the death by rampant Benfica.
In settled Group G, winners Manchester City rested several starters including Erling Haaland but beat Sevilla 3-1 from 17-year-old Rico Lewis, Julian Alvarez and Riyad Mahrez. Copenhagen got their first goal of the campaign from Hakan Haraldsson in a 1-1 with Dortmund.