Manchester United lost to Bayern and dropped out of European competition

The first day of the final round of the Champions League group stage was marked by the expected fiasco of one of the most popular clubs in the world – Manchester United. After a home defeat from Bayern Munich – 0:1, he took the last place in his quartet, missing out to the 1/8 finals of the Champions League to the Danish Copenhagen, and to the Turkish Galatasaray to the play-off round of the Europa League.

Of course, by and large, Manchester United missed out on its chances of making it to the 1/8 finals of the Champions League in the last round. group A, facing Bayern at home. The prerequisites for this failure were a home defeat to Galatasaray (2:3) and an away defeat to Copenhagen (3:4). And yet, theoretically, in the final round the English grandee had the opportunity to advance further. To do this, he needed a victory over Bayern at home, subject to a draw in the meeting between the champions of Denmark and Turkey. But it didn’t work out. In the first half, Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes, left without guards in an advantageous situation, shot well above the goal of Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, and after a while there was a denouement in this sad story for the legendary British club.

First, after the break in Copenhagen, the hosts’ striker Lukas Lerager scored a goal for the Istanbul team. And then Bayern midfielder Kingsley Coman, who gracefully spun a combination into the Manchester United penalty area, received a pass from Harry Kane and left no chance for opposing goalkeeper Andre Onana. Moreover, in the remaining twenty-odd minutes at the Old Trafford Stadium, the visitors were close to increasing their advantage: Kane’s header sent the ball wide of the top corner. As a result, both matches ended with the same result – 1:0. This means that Bayern has 16 points, Copenhagen has 8, Galatasaray has 5, and Manchester United has 4.

That is, one of the most popular clubs in the world dropped out of the European Cups, failing to even grab third place, which would give them the right to continue fighting in the Europa League.

IN group C Napoli, the current champion of Italy, and Portuguese Braga fought for a second place in the play-offs of the Champions League in a head-to-head meeting in Naples. The Neapolitans, who after 15 rounds of the national championship are only seventh and have not yet qualified for European competition, cleared all the questions in the first half and won – 2:0. Berlin Union lost at home to Real Madrid – 2:3, despite the fact that 38-year-old visiting Croatian midfielder Luka Modric missed a penalty at the end of the first half. Thus, Real, finding themselves in far from the weakest company after the draw, went through the group stage without losses and scored 18 points (Manchester City may repeat this result on Wednesday). Napoli earned 10 points, while Braga and Union had 4 and 2 points left, respectively.

In the other two quartets on Tuesday, the clubs that went from third place to the Europa League were determined. Group B delegated the French “Lance” there, which beat the Spanish “Seville” at home – 2:1. Since the London Arsenal and the Dutch PSV played a draw in Eindhoven – 1:1, the final position here is as follows: Arsenal – 13 points, PSV – 9, Lens – 8, Sevilla – 2. That is, the club is from Spain , who is the current winner of the Europa League, and in total has won this tournament more than anyone else – seven times, not only failed to qualify for the playoffs of the main European Cup, but will not defend his title in another tournament.

And in group D At the last moment, the Portuguese Benfica won a ticket to the second most important European Cup, meeting Austrian Salzburg on the road. The goal of the Brazilian striker of Lisbon, Arthur Cabral, which brought them victory – 3:1, turned the situation in the rivalry between these two teams. Benfica scored the same 4 points as Salzburg, but surpassed it in one of the additional indicators, scoring 11 goals against 7 in all six matches. The first to finish here was the Spanish Real Sociedad, which achieved a goalless draw on the road with the Italian Inter and with equal points – 12 each – overtook him in terms of the best difference in goals scored and goals conceded. It should be noted that Russian midfielder Arsen Zakharyan spent most of the meeting with the guests, who earned a yellow card and was replaced in the 77th minute.

Evgeniy Fedyakov