Striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic hit the target for AC Milan yet again on Tuesday as the former winners took their place in the last 16 of the Champions League along with an inspired Olympique Marseille. The pair qualified with a game to spare by taking runners-up spots in their groups after Milan won 2-0 at Auxerre and Marseille thrashed Spartak Moscow 3-0 to reach the knockout stages for the first time since they won the trophy in 1993.
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Arsenal's hopes of joining them were put on hold after the North Londoners, needing only a point to qualify, suffered a late collapse and lost 2-0 to Braga in Portugal. AC Milan had Ibrahimovic to thank once more as they beat Auxerre to go through from Group G, with the in-form Swede opening the scoring with his fourth goal in five group games.
The Italian side secured runners-up spot behind rampant Real Madrid, the nine-times European Cup winners who triumphed 4-0 at Ajax Amsterdam thanks to a brace from Cristiano Ronaldo and goals from Karim Benzema and Alvaro Arbeloa. Marseille's win in Moscow assured them of second place in Group F behind Chelsea, now the only team with a 100 percent record in this season's competition after beating Slovakia's MSK Zilina 2-1 with a young-looking side at Stamford Bridge.
Shakhtar Donetsk seized the opportunity to push Arsene Wenger's men off the top of Group H with a 3-0 win at Partizan Belgrade that left the Ukrainians on the verge of going through and condemned the Serbians to a fifth straight loss. Already-qualified Bayern Munich lost 3-2 to Roma at the Stadio Olimpico and lost their 100 percent record despite Mario Gomez scoring with two quick fire strikes in the 33rd and 39th to send them in 2-0 up at halftime. FC Basel kept alive their slim hopes of getting out of Group E with a 1-0 win over Romania's CFR Cluj.