Gunners keep European dream alive

Arsenal needed rescuing by one of their young stars, Theo Walcott, to gain their place in knockout stages of the Champions League on the final day of group play.

The final scoreline, a 3-1 win over Partizan, flatters the London side, but the match will have given indigestion to its fans.

The final sixteen teams are now set with the Gunners joining Bayern Munich, Roma, Chelsea, Marseille, Real Madrid, AC Milan and Shakhtar in the knockout stages.

It was a nervous night at Emirates for the current Premier League leaders, who have made a maddening habit of letting both leads and wins slip away. Tonight, showing little of the flair or flow that is the hallmark of the London giants, Arsenal went up early, then conceded a soft goal, and looked on the brink of collapse.

Robin van Persie converted a penalty at the half hour mark, but the game was tied up shortly after halftime when Cleo was let in alone, and his shot deflected in past a helpless Lukasz Fabianski. Suddenly, heads were down, and the Emirates crowd were booing their team, having seen this all too often before.

But the introduction of Walcott for a wholly ineffective Andrei Arshavin changed things almost immediately, the English national team winger scoring just six minutes after he took the field when Partizan failed to clear a cross by Bacary Sagna. That allowed the lithe striker to slam home from an acute angle before Samir Nasri made sure of the win three minutes later when he ripped one home off the turn.

Arsenal finished second in Group H after Sporting Braga proved unable to do anything at Shakthar, meekly going down 2-0 to the Dontesk club. Arsenal will also miss Sagna in the knockout stage; he was harshly ejected late for a last-man foul, meaning he misses the next match.

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Tue, Apr. 26

Schalke 0-2 Man Utd | Recap

Wed, Apr. 27

Real Madrid 0-2 Barcelona | Recap

Tue, May 3

Barcelona 1-1 Real Madrid | Recap

Wed, May 4

Man Utd 4-1 Schalke | Recap

Sat, May 28

Barcelona 3-1 Manchester United | Recap

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CL Scores | Tables | Fixtures

It gets worse. By finishing second, Arsenal must face one of the following imposing teams -- Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich or Schalke. Their long-suffering fans might be wondering when this team’s luck will run out. After tonight, and another rabbit-out-of-the-hat outing, the magic is wearing thin.

In Ukraine Shakhtar not only won the group, but reached the knockout stage for the first time in six attempts. Unbeaten in 52 matches at their home Donbass Arena, their last loss coming two years ago against Sporting Lisbon, Shakhtar was confident in possession, strong in the tackle and if they didn't exactly fire on all cylinders up front, they did more than enough to blunt Braga's sputtering attack.

Shakhtar was in control long before Razvan Rat completed the job with a fine, first time strike to the lower corner in the 78th. And when Rat's perfect cross saw Luiz Adriano alone to finish at the far post five minutes later it was just reward for a match well-managed from the outset.

In Group E, AS Roma went to Romania knowing they needed at least a point to qualify. They got it, 1-1. Roma tried to take the game to CFR Cluj right from the outset, but were well-matched throughout the first half. It was left to Fabio Simplicio to get the breakthrough: he collected a giveaway in his own half of the field, sent a finely-weighted pass through to Marco Borriello that was side-footed home.

With Basel being well-beaten in Munich there was really no pressure on Roma after the interval and it came as no surprise that the Serie A side played out the second 45 minutes with assurance. To their credit, Cluj did get an equalizer when Lacina Traore headed a cross down past Bogdan Lobont in the final minutes, but Lobont had made the save of the match late in the first half when he touched a scorcher past his far post at a time when Cluj might well have built the platform for a victory.

Already certain of first place in Group E, Bayern needed just 35 minutes to prove their class. Two goals from Franck Ribery and one from Anatoliy Tymoshchuk led the Bavarians on a 3-0 stroll. Manager Louis van Gaal will be beaming, as it appears Ribery is finally coming back into form after the injury problems that have limited his role with Bayern this season.

In already-decided Group G, Karim Benzema’s hat trick paced a Real Madrid side on cruise control against Auxerre. The Spanish giants had already clinched the group but there was enough class on show to ensure that the French, who qualified for the group stage by upsetting Zenit St. Petersburg, weren’t even going to get a sniff at a Europa League spot. Cristiano Ronaldo also scored to augment Benzema's three.

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Auxerre would not have escaped last place in Group G anyway since Ajax Amsterdam took care of AC Milan 2-0 in the San Siro thanks to second half goals from Demy de Zeeuw and Toby Alderweireld. It was a deserved win for Ajax, who were by far the better team on the evening.

Chelsea went to Marseille knowing they were Group F winners but they are currently enduring one of their poorest runs in years. That form continued tonight as Carlo Ancelotti's team were well beat by an 81st minute Brandao goal that gave Olympique the 1-0 triumph but still left them second in Group F.

With Spartak Moscow already into the Europa League, the remaining Group F game had nothing at stake in Slovakia. Sadly, the fixture at Zilina would prove to be the most combustible of the night.

Just four and half minutes in, flares began to be thrown from the Spartak fans’ area and the match was suspended for 25 minutes. Ironically, the game was almost postponed before kickoff due to heavy fog. The game would resume, and despite having scorer Ibson sent off late, Spartak would win out 2-1, meaning MSK joined Partizan as one of only two teams to fail to take a point from the group stages.

Jamie Trecker is a senior writer for FoxSoccer.com covering the UEFA Champions League.