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A day after rival Liverpool was knocked out of the 2009-10 Champions League, its long time rival Manchester United suffered a shock 1-0 defeat to Besiktas at Old Trafford Wednesday. However, unlike Liverpool which dropped into the second-tier Europa League, Manchester United is still through to the knockout, but it has to wait until the final matchday on Dec. 8 to win the group. United need at least a point when it plays at Wolfsburg to place first, which could be important with the possibly of a knockout Round of 16 match against teams like Real Madrid, Barcelona or Inter Milan.
Besiktas, which hadn't won in the Champions League group stage, got a 20th-minute 30-yard curling, deflected goal from Chilean midfielder Rodrigo Tello to hold up, ending Manchester United's 23-game home unbeaten streak in the competition.
Manchester United paid a bit of the price for playing a young, experimental lineup with old hands like Wayne Rooney and Ryan Giggs left on the bench in favor of guys like Danny Welbeck and Gabriel Obertan. It could come back to haunt them should they land a tricky draw in the knockout stages and or finish second.
Elsewhere, Chelsea joined Arsenal as another Premier League team in the knockout stages, defeating Porto 1-0 at Stamford Bridge on a goal from Nicolas Anelka to win Group D. (Porto also advances even with the loss.)
In Group A French champions Bordeaux secured first-place with a 2-0 win over Juventus. That result gave a lifeline to struggling German power Bayern Munich, which defeated Maccabi Haifa 1-0 on an Ivica Olic goal. This sets up an elimination game in the final matchday between Juventus and Bayern in Turn in Dec. 8. Juventus gets through with a win or draw, while Bayern need to win.
Finally, Group C remains thoroughly up in the air with Real Madrid (10 points), AC Milan (8) and Marseille (7) all fighting for two spots. Marseille hosts Real Madrid, which welcomed back Cristiano Ronaldo Wednesday, while Milan travels to Switzerland to play FC Zurich.
Overall, this has been a very intriguing Group Stage for the Champions League, which usually plays out like a paint-by-numbers coloring book. With a game to go it's downright amazing that Liverpool has already been knocked out and major world powers like Real Madrid, Barcelona, Inter and AC Milan, Bayern Munich and Juventus are fighting for their lives and that like a high-stakes game of European musical chairs, somebody is going home ... or at least into the unfancied Europa League.
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