Update:
Group A - Juventus with
another draw. Man City beats Red Bull Salzburg to confirm their ascension to the next round. Juve has to win by two against Man City, and Lech has to lose to Salzburg, for Juve to be able to go on to the next round. Speaking of Salzburg, they're going home regardless of result.
Group B - Aris stunned Atletico at home and Leverkusen won, meaning Leverkusen clinches top of the group and Atletico has to beat them to have a chance because of head-to-head. (They're even in the points). Oh, and Rosenborg is officially hooped.
Group C - And Sporting is now
officially going onto the next round. Gent took the upper hand by beating Levski, but they still have to beat Lille to move on. Levski cannot possibly qualify, regardless of mathematical possibility, because it isn't like both Gent and Lille can lose when they're playing each other. If it's a draw, Gent gets the point, they go on. If Gent wins... well duh.
If Lille wins, they move on. Levski can only max out at 7. They're screwed.
Group D - After a draw against PAOK, we do know that Brugge is going home. Villarreal are top and there seems little chance if any of them being knocked out, since the last match is between PAOK and Dinamo Zagreb. Matter of fact I think Villarreal is officially through because of that exact fact. Their last match, by the way, is against Brugge.
Group E - the first "finished" group even though they have a match left. This is because Dynamo Kyiv drilled BATE 4-1 on their own turf to go six clear of Sheriff Tiraspol and AZ Alkmaar, who drew 1-1. That's kinda sad... a team from the Netherlands not able to beat one from Moldova
Anyway, both of the teams in that draw are going home.
Group F - A draw was all it took. Sparta are moving on to the knockout stages, joining still-perfect CSKA after a 2-2 draw against 3rd-place Palermo, who could have pulled to within a point with a win and probably moved on, given how their last match was against sad-sack Lausanne, who got murdered 5-1 by CSKA.
Group G - Zenit is also still perfect after a convincing 3-1 win over Anderlecht, but AEK is the real story of this round of matches as they took the driver's seat in the battle for the other spot with a 3-1 win of their own, against Hajduk Split, which eliminated the losing side. Now with AEK's last match against Zenit, Anderlecht seems likely to get the spot, as they play Hajduk. But guess who Hajduk's lone win was against? Anything less than a win and Anderlecht goes home. Plus there's always the possibility of AEK beating Zenit.
Group H - Well well well, who would have predicted a Young Boys win over Stuttgart? The Germans are of course still top, but given OB and Getafe's lack of that extra little push (they drew), this means that Young Boys are joining the Germans in the next round.
Group I - as retaliation for the only point droppage they've had being on their own turf, PSV gutted out a 2-1 win against the same Sampdoria team responsible for the 1-1 draw on opening day, eliminating them from competition. Of course, had Metallist not defeated sad-sack Debrecen, it wouldn't quite have been elimination, would it?
Group J - If one were going just by numbers, we'd say it was a three-way fight. However, since Sevilla and Dortmund play each other and both are behind PSG in the points (PSG has 11, Sevilla 9, and Dortmund
the battle is for second, especially with the Parisians playing against Karpaty L'viv, who got thumped 3-0 by Dortmund in their last match. So PSG is on.
Group K - blah. This group is le boring. Only three of the ten matches played so far have been definitive winner-loser results, meaning that everyone is still in the running. Liverpool wraps up at home against Utrecht, and they've yet to drop points at home, so this is a good sign that they're probably going on. The other match isn't quite so set in stone. Steaua and Napoli drew 3-3 last time they met, in Bucharest. Let's see what happens in the shadow of Vesuvius.
Group L - Well, what could have pulled CSKA Sofia to within a point instead ended up eliminating them, as they lost 2-1 to Besiktas. As for Rapid Wien, the win by the Turkish side also eliminated them, but they went and lost anyway against Porto.
Who's qualified? Man City (A), Bayer Leverkusen (B), SC Portugal (C), Villarreal (D), Dynamo Kyiv and BATE Barysau (E), CSKA Moskva and Sparta Praha (F), Zenit Peterburg (G), VfB Stuttgart and BSC Young Boys (H), PSV Eindhoven and Metallist Kharkiv (I), Paris St.-Germain (J), FC Porto and Besiktas (L).
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