Chelsea on brink of crashing out of the Champions league, after Juventus loss as Lionel Messi closes in on goal-scoring record

Chelsea's UEFA Champions League defence is hanging by a thread after they surrendered meekly to Juventus in Turin.

The holders need to beat Nordsdjaelland at Stamford Bridge in two weeks and hope Shakhtar Donetsk can do them a favour against Juventus otherwise they will become the first defending champions to go out at the group stages.

Chelsea went into the clash one point ahead of the Bianconeri in Group E but were on the back foot throughout and found no answer to the home side.

Juventus made the breakthrough seven minutes before half-time when Andrea Pirlo's shot deflected off Fabio Quagliarella to wrong-foot Petr Cech in the Chelsea goal and although the goalkeeper got a hand on the ball, he could not stop it crossing the line.

The home side doubled their lead just past the hour mark when Kwadwo Asamoah cut the ball back for Arturo Vidal and his shot took a deflection off Ramires before flying through Cech's legs.
The Italian champions piled the misery on Chelsea with a third goal in stoppage time as Sebastian Giovinco beat Cech to a through ball to slide the ball home.

 

Shakhtar booked their place in the knockout stages with a controversial 5-2 win over Nordsdjaelland in Denmark.

In Turkey, a youthful Manchester United side lost 1-0 to Galatasaray as Sir Alex Ferguson saw his side's 100 per cent record come to an end.

Burak Yilmaz scored the only goal of the game at the Turk Telekom Arena when he headed in a corner in the 54th minute to take the hosts to the brink of qualification for the knockout stages.

In Lisbon, Celtic's fate will go down to the final game after they went down to a 2-1 defeat to Benfica at the Estadio da Luz.

Ola John gave the Portuguese side an early lead before Giorgos Samaras equalised for Celtic, but Ezequiel Garay's 71st-minute winner left Celtic needing them to better Benfica's result in a fortnight if they are to advance to the knockout stage.

In Moscow, Lionel Messi continues his prodigious goal-scoring form with a brace as Barcelona qualified for the last 16 with a 3-0 win over Spartak Moscow.

After Dani Alves had put them ahead after 16 minutes, Messi bagged his double before half-time and Barca cruised through a largely uneventful second half.

Messi, who was top scorer in the competition for a record fourth time last season, now has five goals from five games and he has 80 for the calendar year as he pursues Gerd Muller's 85 playing for Bayern Munich and Germany in 1972.

And he moved level with Ruud van Nistelrooy on 56 Champions League goals. Raul is the competition's all time scorer with 71.

In Valencia, Bayern Munich needed a late Thomas Mueller goal to come from behind and seal a 1-1 draw at ten-man Valencia which put both teams in the knock-out phase.