By George Burns Nov 25, 2009, 21:44 GMT
Hamburg - Bayern Munich secured the 1-0 victory they needed at home to Maccabi Haifa Wednesday to retain any hope of progressing to the knockout stages of the Champions League.
Already qualified Bordeaux did Bayern a favour in Group A, defeating Juventus 2-0 at home courtesy of goals from Fernando Menegazzo and Marouane Chamakh to assure themselves of top spot.
Ivica Olic was the hero for Bayern, netting the only goal of the game to ease the pressure on coach Louis van Gaal and move the German giants to within a point of Juve ahead of the two sides' final group match against each other at the Stadio Olimpico on December 8.
'That was one of our best games,' said a relieved van Gaal afterwards.
Meanwhile, Real Madrid moved one step closer to making the next round for the 12th consecutive year after defeating FC Zurich 1-0, Gonzalo Higuain netting the only goal of the Group C encounter after 21 minutes.
Real now have 10 points from five matches, two clear of AC Milan who could only manage a 1-1 draw at home to Olympique Marseille. The French club lie one point further back ahead of their final group encounter against Madrid.
Marco Borriello gave Milan an early lead but Lucho Gonzalez equalized for Marseille six minutes later to register his 10th goal of the competition.
Chelsea will be the seeded team from Group D after a second-half goal from Nicolas Anelka gave the Premier League leaders a 1-0 win away to also qualified FC Porto.
'To win the group was the most important thing and we have reached our objective. To win here is not easy, but we got a good result and we're happy,' said Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti.
The battle for third in the group, and a place in the Europa League, remains wide open after Atletico Madrid and APOEL Nicosia played out a 1-1 draw.
CSKA Moscow came from behind to beat Vfl Wolfsburg 2-1 to remain in contention for the second automatic qualifying spot in Group B.
German champions Wolfsburg only needed a point at the Luzhniki stadium in Moscow to be assured of qualification for the knockout phase and looked to be well on their way when Edin Dzeko put them in front after just 19 minutes with his third goal of the campaign.
However, Tomas Necid netted a deserved equalizer on 58 minutes before Milos Krasic fired in a superb winner from all of 30 metres eight minutes later to make it 2-1.
The win moves CSKA level with Wolfsburg on seven points, three behind already-qualified leaders Manchester United, who failed to secure top spot after going down 1-0 at home to Besiktas following a deflected first-half effort from Rodrigo Tello.
'We missed a great chance tonight to finish things off,' said Wolfsburg coach Armin Veh. 'We were too passive and didn't produce the necessary threat up front.'
CSKA face Besiktas in their final group match on December 8 while Wolfsburg take on United.
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