Wednesday's UEFA Champions League featured some true head-turners when 17 teams secured their place in the knockout stages. Here we give you a fact from each of Matchday 7's 18 encounters.
Atalanta produced a dominant show, winning 5-0 against Sturm Graz and, in the bargain, improving their chances of qualifying for the round of 16. Additionally, the Bergamaschi ended a run of five consecutive games in the competition without winning at home, since the 2021/22 season when they beat Young Boys 1-0.
AS Monaco set up their 1-0 win against Aston Villa with an early goal, thus clinching qualification into the knockout stages of the competition. The win brought their tally of victories against Premier League sides in European competition to nine. They have also won their previous three matches against English sides at home.
Stuttgart kept alive their hopes of qualification with a 3-1 win over Slovan Bratislava in the Slovakian capital. This was die Schwaben's third group campaign in succession in which they have logged precisely two away wins; they did so in the 2010/11 and 2012/13 Europa League group campaigns.
Liverpool were tested to the limit in their 2-1 victory over Lille at Anfield that secured a top-two position for the Reds. The victory also marked the continuation of an incredible streak, including 12 successive wins at this stage of the Champions League for Arne Slot's team since their 4-1 loss to Napoli during the 2022/23 season.
PSV went on to win 3-2 at Crvena zvezda, a win that pretty much guarantees the Dutch champions a place in the knockout-round playoffs. For Crvena zvezda, the defeat confirms their elimination and takes their record to 11 consecutive Champions League home games without a clean sheet; the previous such occurrence was in the 2018/19 season, when they shocked Liverpool 2-0.
Juventus remained the kings of draws with their 0-0 draw in Belgium against Club Brugge being their 16th on the season in all competitions. The Bianconeri have 13 in Serie A, and three in the Champions League. They, like Celtic, have the most in the league phase this season.
Borussia Dortmund lost 2-1 at Bologna away from home otherwise to progress to at least knockout-round playoffs. The Schwarzgelben suffered their 20th defeat by an Italian club in Europe, and half of their encounters with Serie A opposition.
In the most dramatic of the games on the night, Barcelona found a goal with literally the last kick in Lisbon to beat Benfica 5-4. For the second time, the Portuguese giants had gone ahead, only to present all three points on a platter in the final seconds of injury time. It was only the second time they have lost a European game after scoring three or more goals, their previous occasion being a 4-3 defeat at Inter a little over precisely 21 years ago.
Once more Atletico left it late but they did find their winner in deep added time: The 2-1 loss to Bayer Leverkusen was three home victories in succession against Bundesliga opponents: They defeated RB Leipzig on Matchday 1 and Borussia Dortmund in the quarterfinals last year by the identical score.
RB Leipzig, having lost all six of their group-stage games before Wednesday, defeated Sporting CP 2-1. Even though the Germans were already out before kick-off, the win ended an eight-match winless run in the competition - seven of them losses. They even lost their last four Champions League home matches as well.
And to wrap up with seven does indeed appear the running number in this round, Shakhtar Donetsk beat Brest 2-0 and thus kept their hopes, at the moment very slim. Miners accumulated seven points from as many matches, while scored seven times so far too, those all from last four.
Arsenal easily defeated Dinamo Zagreb 3-0, thus putting themselves in a good position to qualify to the round of 16 without having to endure the playoffs. The Gunners registered another clean sheet at Emirates Stadium, and they are now the only team so far who have not conceded a single goal at home in all four league-phase games. Inter, Bayer Leverkusen, and Aston Villa, however, are also able to reach this point given that they don't concede a week from now.
The other side that is on the verge of qualifying to the round of 16 are AC Milan. AC Milan defeated Girona 1-0, finally sending the Spanish outfit packing. The seven-time winners of the competition have now ended a sequence of 10 UEFA club competition matches without a clean sheet, the previous one being in the Europa League knockout round play-offs last term.
Celtic booked their first knockout phase spot since 2013, thanks to a last-minute own goal as they defeated Young Boys 1-0. The Swiss side are one of just two teams to have taken no points from the group stage and have lost 13 on the road. Only RB Salzburg (14) have conceded more.
The play of the evening, however, belonged to Feyenoord, who stunned Bayern Munich 3-0 to reach the knockout round. The Eredivisie team have a rich history over German teams in Europe. The win was their 16th over such teams, by far the most over any country. Eight is their second highest, over English, Italian, and Swedish teams.
Manchester City may make unwanted history late in the season. A 4-2 reversal at Paris Saint-Germain has left City outside the glimmer of that round four knockout-round bid. In the event that Manchester City were to fail in their next meeting this coming week versus Club Brugge, the team's fortunes will fall out completely in unexpected knockout despite its minimum haul of 15 goals on league phase play. No team has ever been eliminated from the first round of a UEFA club competition after scoring this number of goals.
Real Madrid sealed their position among the top 24 teams with a 5-1 win over Salzburg at home. The defeat dropped the Austrian team out of the tournament, as they lost for the sixth time on Spanish soil and 14th in total. Despite the strong opposition from LaLiga teams, their league-phase campaign ends with a home game against Atletico Madrid.
Inter Milan have a tendency to make their Champions League games very tight-fisted this season, as it concluded with them earning a winning advantage and their Sparta Prague victory by 1-0 scoreline accounted for the fifth time of that very characteristic. What ought to be a better news to Nerazzurri? Their game finished victorious as many as four of the five games.