Champions League: RB Leipzig beats Real Madrid after a furious initial phase

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Leipzig cheers: Christopher Nkunku (left) and Dominik Szoboszlai

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Hendrik Schmidt / dpa

After a lightning start, Bundesliga club RB Leipzig won 3: 2 (2: 1) against Real Madrid and thus have good chances of reaching the round of 16 in the Champions League.

In the parallel game in Group F, Celtic Glasgow and Shakhtar Donetsk drew 1-1 (1-0).

With that, Leipzig will be satisfied with a draw in the last group match against Donetsk next week.

On the other hand, Juventus Turin was eliminated after a 3: 4 (1: 3) at Benfica Lisbon, which has thus qualified for the next round as well as the French champions Paris Saint-Germain, Maccabi Haifa 7: 2 (4: 1) shot down.

Chelsea are one round ahead after a 2-1 (1-0) win at RB Salzburg.

Kai Havertz scored a dream goal.

Not much was at stake for Real Madrid, the Spaniards were almost certainly in the round of 16 even before the game.

That's why coach Carlo Ancelotti rotated properly, among other things, the ailing regular players Karim Benzema, Luka Modrić and Federico Valverde did not travel to Leipzig at all.

The team noticed from the start that the Spanish champions weren't used to playing in this formation.

Leipzig came into the Real penalty area for the first time in the first minute, but keeper Thibaut Courtois was able to save.

A short time later, the Belgian goalkeeper was powerless: first he parried a header from André Silva after a corner, but then Joško Gvardiol got the ball and gave Leipzig a 1-0 lead (13 ').

After that, the Bundesliga club remained the more active team and tied Real at the back.

First Christopher Nkunku only hit the side netting (16'), two minutes later the ball fell in front of his feet in the penalty area and the Frenchman nailed the ball under the bar.

After that, Real woke up.

First Rodrygo failed to Leipzig keeper Janis Blaswich (35th), shortly before the break whistle then Vinícius Júnior headed the goal (44th).

In the second half, Leipzig switched to counterattacking - and thus made the preliminary decision shortly before the end.

Substitute Timo Werner pushed in after preparatory work by Mohamed Simakan (81st).

After a foul by Nkunku, Rodrygo only managed to come back with a penalty (90+4).

Despite the bankruptcy, Real Madrid is certainly in the round of 16 with ten points.

Leipzig (9) is in second place in Group F, Donetsk is third (6).

With two points, Celtic no longer have a chance of spending the winter in Europe.

Little happened for a long time, both Celtic and Shakhtar Donetsk struggled on the offensive.

Georgios Giakoumakis then gave the Scots the lead with the first real opportunity of the game when he scooped in a rebound from close range (35').

After falling behind, Donetsk got into the game better and equalized with a dream goal.

Mykhaylo Mudryk sprinted down the center line, shot from around 16 meters and brought the ball under the bar (58').

Juventus Turin has finally been eliminated from the Champions League.

At Benfica Lisbon, the Italians didn't find their way into the game and seemed unsettled.

Antonio Silva gave Benfica an early lead from a corner (17').

After that, the game got hectic.

First, Dušan Vlahović poked the ball over the line after a corner and scored the somewhat surprising equalizer (21').

Just seven minutes later, however, Benfica struck again.

Juan Cuadrado played the ball with his hand in the penalty area, João Mário safely converted the penalty (28').

After that, coach Roger Schmidt's team dominated, Rafa scored the 3-1 for Benfica (35th).

In the second half, Juventus even conceded the 1:4 (50th) through Rafa - and then woke up.

Arkadiusz Milik brought Juve to 2:4 (77th), ex-Schalke player Weston McKennie then even made it 3:4 (79th).

Juventus braced themselves against the bankruptcy, but could not prevent it despite the race to catch up.

Benfica are second in Group H behind Paris Saint-Germain on 11 points after the win and have secured a place in the round of 16.

Juventus are third with just three points, followed by Maccabi Haifa (3).

Paris Saint-Germain showed no doubts against Maccabi Haifa from the start and could fully rely on their attacking trio.

Lionel Messi gave the French champions the lead with a shot from the outside (19'), Kylian Mbappé quickly made it 2-0 (31').

In the first half, Neymar was the third PSG attacker to score (35').

The game was decided early.

The 1: 3 by Haifa's Abdoulaye Seck did not change that (38th), also because Messi scored a second goal in the first half (44th).

In the second half, Seck again managed to make it 2: 4 with a header (50th), before Mbappé scored the next goal for the enthusiastic Parisians (64th).

The 2: 6 from Haifa's perspective came from an own goal by Sean Goldberg (67th).

Carlos Soler (84th) set the final point to 7:2.

With the expected victory, Paris is in the round of 16 of the Champions League.

Dinamo Zagreb held up well for a long time and presented AC Milan with some problems.

Although the Italians had a few smaller chances, it was not until the 39th minute before the favorites took the lead.

Defender Matteo Gabbia prevailed after a free kick and scored the 1-0 with a header.

After that, the Croatians' resistance was somewhat broken, after discrepancies in the defense Rafael Leão increased to 2-0 shortly after the break (50th).

Shortly afterwards, Olivier Giroud made the preliminary decision with a penalty kick (59th).

Robert Ljubicic scored another own goal (69th).

Chelsea had everything under control in the first half, Salzburg almost didn't get the ball. It was almost logical for London to take the lead and Mateo Kovačić scored after some confusion in Salzburg's defense (23').

Chelsea even missed a few opportunities after that.

That was punished after the change of sides.

After a spotless counterattack, Junior Adamu scored to make it 1-1 (48th).

Chelsea then played far less dominantly than at the beginning - and still prevailed.

German international Kai Havertz took aim from the edge of the penalty area and hit the corner directly (64').

Chelsea are the winners of Group E with ten points in the round of 16 of the Champions League.

AC Milan followed in second place with seven points, followed by RB Salzburg (6) and Dinamo Zagreb (4).

Both Sevilla and Copenhagen desperately needed a win to keep their hopes of reaching the round of 16 alive.

This pressure was noticeable in the game.

FC Sevilla had a hard time, the Danes relied on counterattacks, but didn't finish them cleanly.

Sevilla only got stronger in the second half and rewarded themselves with the lead.

Attacker Youssef En-Nesyri scored with a header to make it 1-0 (61st).

Isco (88') and Gonzalo Montiel (89') followed up shortly before the end before Copenhagen's David Khocholava was sent off after a serious foul (94').

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