Champions League review: 04th December 2012

Julian Schieber scored the only goal in Dortmund’s 1-0 victory over Manchester City

Manchester City’s season of European misery was complete last night as Dortmund defeated the English champions 1-0 at Signal Iduna Park.

The only goal of the game came from a close-range effort from Julian Schieber in the 57^th minute.

City looked flat and couldn’t find their way back into the game. The victory means that Dortmund finish top of the group.

For City the defeat means that they don’t even have the consolation prize of playing in the Europa League, as they finished rock-bottom of the group.

Ajax clinched third spot and a Europa League place, despite going down 4-1 at Real Madrid. The Spanish champions took the lead after just 13 minutes through Cristiano Ronaldo. Jose Callejon doubled the home sides lead on 28 minutes, before Brazilian Kaka added a third in the 49^th minute.

Ajax scored a consolation goal through Derk Boerrigter in the 59^th minute. Real completed the rout in the 88^th minute, Callejon firing home his second of the game. The victory means that Real Madrid finish second in Group D.

Arsenal qualified for the knockout stages despite losing 2-1 at Olympiakos. The Gunners took the lead in the 38^th minute, midfielder Tomas Rosicky firing home from the edge of the penalty area. The home side were level on 65 minutes though.

Djamel Abdoun’s cross was fired home by Giannis Maniatis. Things got even better for the home side in the 73^rd minute, Kostas Mitroglou curling home an effort past Wojciech Szczesny in the Arsenal goal.

Arsenal finished second in the group, as German side Schalke topped the group, despite only drawing 1-1 in Montpellier. Schalke took the lead in the 56^th minute, centre-back Benedikt Howedes firing home from inside the box.

However, the German side wasn’t in front for long, as Emmanuel Herrera equalised for the French champions. Olympiakos finished in third place in the group and secured the Europa League spot.

Russian champions Zenit St Petersburg clinched a spot in the Europa League after a 1-0 victory over Italian giants AC Milan. Portuguese star Danny scored the only goal of the game in the 35^th minute.

Anderlecht finished bottom of the group after drawing 2-2 with Spanish side Malaga. Malaga took the lead just before the interval through a superb effort from Brazilian star Duda. The Belgian side equalised in the 50^th minute through striker Milan Jovanovic.

Duda scored his brace in the 61^st minute, with another well-taken effort. Anderlecht equalised in the last minute through a Dieumerci Mbokani effort.

Paris St Germain finished top of Group A, after the French side defeated Porto 2-1 at Parc de Princes. PSG were ahead in the 29^th minute through an effort from Brazilian defender Thiago Silva. Porto hit back quickly though, Colombian striker Jackson Martinez scoring in the 33^rd minute.

PSG regained the lead just after the half hour mark, as Porto keeper Helton let an Ezequiel Lavezzi effort squirm through his hands into the goal.

Dinamo Zagreb and Dinamo Kiev drew 1-1 in Zagreb. The game was delayed after heavy snow and then interrupted as the groundstaff had to paint over the lines with red paint. When the game did get restarted Kiev took the lead, Andriy Yarmolenko scoring with a superb speculative effort.

Just as Dinamo Zagreb were heading for their 12^th consecutive Champions League defeat, Zagreb won an injury-time penalty. Ivan Krstanovic scored from the resulting spot kick to give his team their only point of the campaign. Kiev meanwhile have qualified for the Europa League by finishing third in the group.

Can PSG be the surprise package of this season’s Champions League?