Sevilla, Liverpool, Porto, Shakhtar advance to CL knockouts

Porto, Sevilla and Shakhtar advanced as second-place sides, along with holders Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Juventus and Basel.

Headed to the Europa League are third-place finishers Atletico Madrid, CSKA Moscow, Celtic, Sporting, poli, Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig and Spartak Moscow.

Liverpool crushed Spartak 7-0 at Anfield to assure themselves the top spot in Group E and quash any chance for the Russian side to stch second place from Sevilla, who nevertheless found the motivation to came from behind in a 1-1 draw against Maribor. Philippe Coutinho had a triple for the Reds, while Sadio Mane scored twice in the rout.

Porto claimed the second berth from Group G with a 5-2 pounding of Moco, one of last year's semifilists. Leipzig, who entered the fil match day of the group stage with a chance to move forward, lost 2-1 at home to group winner Besiktas.

Group F delivered the day's only upsets, as winner Manchester City lost for the first time in the 2017-2018 Champions League, falling 2-1 away to Shakhtar.

In Rotterdam, meanwhile, Feyenoord, who had yet to earn a point, bested poli 2-1 to relegate the Italian squad to third place.

Tottenham and Real Madrid started the day with a lock on first and second place, respectively, in Group H.

Spurs domited APOEL 3-0 at Wembley to finish the group stage undefeated, getting a goal and an assist from Ferndo Llorente.

At the Berbeu, the Blancos edged Dortmund 3-2 as Cristiano Roldo got his ninth goal of this year's edition and set yet another record by becoming the first player to score in all six Champions League group-stage matches.

Dortmund and APOEL ended tied on points at two, but the German club took the Europa League berth by virtue of a better goal differential. IANS