Arsenal’s hopes of qualifying for the Champions League knockout stages lie in tatters after they were thrashed 5-1 by Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena on Wednesday night.
Robert Lewandowski beat the offside trap to head Bayern in front after 10 minutes, and Thomas Muller doubled the lead with a deflected volley after Mesut Ozil had a goal disallowed for handball.
The Bundesliga champions showed no remorse after being beaten in the reverse fixture at the Emirates Stadium as David Alaba added a superb third just before half-time, and substitute Arjen Robben scored with his first touch after the break.
Olivier Giroud scored a fine consolation before Muller netted a minute from time.
Arsenal’s defeat – coupled with Olympiakos’ late win against Dinamo Zagreb – means the Gunners need to beat the Greeks by two goals on the final matchday to stand any chance of progressing.
Arsenal had hoped that Dinamo Zagreb could secure a positive result at Olympiakos but the Greeks came from behind to win 2-1 in injury time.
Dinamo took the lead in the first half through Armin Hodzic while Felipe Pardo got a brace for the home team.
Chelsea moved second in Group G with a 2-1 win at home to Dynamo Kiev.
With Eden Hazard on the bench, Chelsea made the breakthrough on 34 minutes when Baba Rahman found Willian out on the right flank, and the Brazilian’s cross was diverted in by Dynamo defender Alexander Dragovic.
The Blues felt they should have had a penalty just before the break when Diego Costa went down in the area, but there appeared to be little contact with Dragovic and the referee waved away the appeals.
Dynamo threatened early in the second half as they went in search of an equaliser, and they eventually got their reward on 78 minutes when Chelsea keeper Asmir Begovic failed to clear a corner, allowing Dragovic to finish.
Parity did not last long, though, as Willian smashed home a superb free kick to put Chelsea 2-1 up and secure a much-needed win for Jose Mourinho.
Porto remain on top of Group G as they saw off Maccabi Tel-Aviv in Israel.
Cristian Tello, Maxi Pereira and Miguel Layun gave the Portuguese side a 3-0 lead before Maccabi netted a consolation goal through an Eran Zahavi penalty.
Barcelona enjoyed a routine 3-0 win over BATE Borisov at the Camp Nou.
Barca, who suffered an early setback when Ivan Rakitic was substituted through injury, went ahead on 30 minutes.
Filip Mladenovic was penalised for a handball on the slide, and Neymar made no mistake from the spot.
They might have been two up at the break when Adriano went through from Neymar’s superb no-look pass, but his effort struck the outside of the post.
They doubled their lead with just under an hour played, with Luis Suarez cleverly poking the ball home from Neymar’s assist.
Neymar then added his second of the night on 83 minutes to round off the victory.
Roma won a dramatic encounter with Bayer Leverkusen 3-2 at the Stadio Olimpico.
The two sides played out a 4-4 draw in Germany last month, and they served up another goal fest in Italy.
Mohamed Salah and Edin Dzeko put Roma in front but Admir Mehmedi and Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez restored parity for the Bundesliga side.
However, Leverkusen conceded a late penalty when Omer Toprak shoved Salah into the net with goal gaping – collecting a red card in the process – and Miralem Pjanic drilled home from the spot.
Hulk and Artem Dzyuba scored for Zenit St Petersburg as the Russian champions qualified for the knockout stages of the competition with a 2-0 win at 10-man Lyon.
Valencia passed up a chance to automatically qualify for the knockout stages as Gent opened up Group H with a surprise 1-0 victory at the Ghelamco Arena.
Gent were awarded a penalty just after the interval after Antonio Barragan handled a Kenny Seif cross from the left flank, and Sven Kums stepped up to put the Belgians ahead from the spot.
