Champions League Winners and Losers from December 10
Goals from Samir Nasri and Pablo Zabaleta gave Manchester City the win they needed against Roma, Wednesday, and with CSKA Moscow losing at Bayern Munich, the Premier League champions will go into the pot for the Champions League round of 16 draw on December 15.
Joining them will be Group E rivals Bayern, Group F's Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain, Group G's Chelsea and Schalke and Group H's Porto and Shakhtar Donetsk.
They will be joined by Atletico Madrid, Juventus, Real Madrid, Basel, Monaco, Bayer Leverkusen, Borussia Dortmund and Arsenal—all of whom closed out their group stage campaigns on Tuesday.
But the following slideshow is only concerned with Wednesday's matches and will highlight some of the winners and losers from another exciting night of Champions League football.
Winner: Barcelona's Forward Line, Which Dismantled Paris Saint-Germain
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It was only a matter of time before Barcelona's attack began to fire on all cylinders.
On Wednesday, each of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez found the back of the net against Paris Saint-Germain, and thanks to their goals, the Catalan giants secured first place in Group F.
"Just as they intended: Neymar, Messi Suarez scoring in the same game," tweeted ESPN FC.
Messi's tally, which cancelled out the Zlatan Ibrahimovic opener, was his record-extending 75th in the Champions League.
Winner: Lasse Schone, Who Bagged a Brace for Ajax
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Lasse Schone will be out of contract in the summer. After another standout performance in the Champions League for Ajax, the attacker can expect to have plenty of suitors over the next few months.
Already, Sunderland are reportedly keen to sign the 28-year-old, according to the Mirror.
On Wednesday, Schone scored twice in his side's 4-0 shellacking of APOEL that secured Europa League football for the Dutch outfit.
He also completed an impressive 85 percent of his passes, per WhoScored, many of which were attempted in the high-risk area of the attacking third.
Loser: BATE Borisov, Whose Defensive Record Was Atrocious
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BATE Borisov would have advanced to the Europa League with a Wednesday win away to Athletic Bilbao.
Instead, they lost 2-0 at the new San Mames and ended up setting an embarrassing record.
As statistics account Infostrada tweeted when Mikel San Jose opened the scoring for the Basque outfit, "BATE Borisov have set a new CL record by conceding 23 goals in this group stage."
They'd allow another to pass between their posts before the final whistle put the Belarusian side out of their misery.
Winner: Max Meyer, Whose Goal Sent Schalke into the Round of 16
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With Chelsea cruising to a win over Sporting CP at Stamford Bridge, Schalke had a chance to pip the Portuguese outfit to second place in Group G.
But they required a win away to Maribor. A draw would not have seen them through.
In a match that produced precious few goalscoring opportunities, Max Meyer managed to find the back of the net shortly after the hour-mark.
His would end up being the only goal of the game—the tally that would send his side through to the round of 16.
"Max Mayer, you beautiful man!" was the ecstatic reaction from Schalke's official Twitter account.
Winner: The Bundesliga, Which Put Four Teams into the Round of 16
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German football will be well represented at Monday's round of 16 draw in Nyon, Switzerland.
With Bayer Leverkusen and Borussia Dortmund having punched their tickets to the knockout stages on Tuesday, the progressions of Bayern Munich and Schalke completed an impressive Bundesliga quartet.
"For the 2nd season in a row all 4 German clubs reach the CL KO phase," tweeted Infostrada.
Winner: Manchester City, Who Beat Roma Without Some of Their Best Players
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Top scorer Sergio Aguero and club captain Vincent Kompany missed Manchester City's final Group E match through injury, Wednesday, and the recovering David Silva was only introduced in the second half.
Nevertheless, the Premier League champions got the goalkeeping they required from Joe Hart and benefited from one of Samir Nasri's best performances since joining the club, as they beat AS Roma 2-0 at Stadio Olimpico and leapfrogged both the Giallorossi and CSKA Moscow into second place in the bracket.
City "showed their character & ability to do it without Aguero," tweeted the Mirror's Darren Lewis.
Added the Guardian's Daniel Taylor: "City started tonight without their captain, their best two midfielders and best striker. Some feat to do that v Serie A's second-placed team."
