The Champions League group stage is drawing to a close with Manchester United visiting Wolfsburg in a match to figure out who wins Group B – and who risks dropping to the Europa League. The Germans led 1-0, but in extra time Manchester United scored twice in three minutes and so they put their hands on the trophy.
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At the start of every competitive season, the soccer team from Manchester is one of the favorites to win the most important trophy in European soccer.
Victory against BATE Borisov would secure second spot in Group E, while a draw would be enough provided Bayer Leverkusen do not win at Barcelona. It seems as if there are only a handful of players in the Premier League that would play regularly for teams such as Bayern Munich, Barcelona, or Real Madrid.
Wolfsburg’s 29-game unbeaten run at home came to an end Saturday when Shinji Kagawa scored Borussia Dortmund’s victor in the 93rd minute, two minutes after Ricardo Rodriguez had equalized. “Everyone wants to be in the Champions League”.
Giroud became the seventh player to reach double figures for goals in the Champions League (Henry, van Persie, Ljungberg, Fabregas, Walcott and Pires the others).
Monk joined Swansea – then in League Two – as a player in 2004, on a free transfer from Barnsley, and went on to be a part of three promotion-winning campaigns, in addition to winning the Capital One Cup and Championship play-off final. For a brief moment, United looked like they might qualify as they equalised against Die Wölfe while PSV Eindhoven fell behind to CSKA Moscow.
The French champions, meanwhile, beat Shakhtar Donetsk 2-0 in Paris, thanks to goals from Lucas Moura and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
The former Manchester United and England defender takes over with Valencia needing to beat Lyon, and hope for some help to keep alive its chances of advancing. However, two teams from the same group can’t play one another in the Round of 16. Benfica would set up a tense finish with Mitroglou who smacked his effort in off the post for the home side.
However, to say the financial blow of playing in the Europa League will be lessened by the new Premier League TV deal that kicks in next season is quite the understatement.
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City finished with 12 points, Juventus with 11, Sevilla with six and ‘Gladbach with five.
