Arsenal qualified for the second round of the Champions League on Wednesday evening as Group F runners-up after a 2-0 defeat to Napoli.
Their hosts, in an awful stroke of bad luck, failed to make it hrough with 12 points, after a Kevin Grosskreutz goal for Borussia Dortmund in Marseille ensured the German side topped the group.
Arsene Wenger’s men stood a slim chance of being eliminated from the competition, needing to lose by three and for Dortmund to win, but it almost went against them in the dying moments after Jose Maria Callejon added to Gonzalo Higuain’s 74th minute opener in the dying seconds.
By that stage Dortmund had engineered a win away to Marseille when Grosskreutz struck with three minutes to go after Robert Lewandowski’s opener was cancelled out by Souleymane Diawara.
Neymar finally showed the goalscoring touch he has been threatening with a hat-trick as Barcelona shrugged off their recent dip in form with a 6-1 win over Celtic to seal top spot in Champions League Group H.
Gerard Pique stabbed home with seven minutes on the clock and, with Celtic stretched at the back, Pedro and Neymar both finished clinically before half-time.
Neymar had never scored before in Europe but got two more after the break, with Adam Matthews unable to stop the Brazilian’s third from going over the line.
Cristian Tello completed Barca’s scoring with another deflected shot.
Celtic grabbed a consolation goal through Giorgios Samaras two minutes from time.
Barca finish top of the section with 13 points, four ahead of second-placed Milan and five ahead of Ajax, who drew 0-0 at the San Siro.
Chelsea made sure they will go into next week’s draw for the last 16 as group winners with a routine 1-0 victory over Steaua Bucharest.
Demba Ba marked a rare starting berth to bundle in Chelsea’s opener after 11 minutes at Stamford Bridge and José Mourinho’s side spent most of the rest of the match in third gear against the Romanian side who finished bottom of Group E.
Chelsea wasted several chances to increase their goal tally while Steaua’s one real chance was wasted early on by Gabriel Iancu.
Victory left Chelsea top of the group with 12 points, two more than Bundesliga side Schalke 04.
Schalke beat 10-man Basel 2-0, helped by a fine goal from Julian Draxler and a clear offside effort from Joel Matip.
The Germans, who moved into the last 16 for the second consecutive season, took a deserved lead in the 51st minute through 20-year-old Draxler after dominating from the start and needing victory to advance from Group E.
They were lucky to have had their second goal count, however, with at least four Schalke players clearly in offside position when Matip slotted in from close range to seal the win and relieve some of the pressure on coach Jens Keller.
FC Porto will have to settle for a place in the Europa League after their campaign ended with a 2-0 defeat at Group G winners Atletico Madrid.
Zenit St Petersburg lost 4-1 at Austria Vienna in the other match in the group but the Russians went through to the last 16 in second place.
The Portuguese side’s luck deserted them at the Calderon as Josue had a penalty saved after Raul Garcia’s 14th-minute opener and four efforts bounced away off the frame of the goal during the match.
Diego Costa made it 2-0 to Atletico in the 37th minute when he sped clear on to an Oliver Torres pass, rounded goalkeeper Helton and clipped the ball into the net.
Atletico finished with 16 points from six matches, with Zenit on seven, and Porto and Vienna on five.
