LONDON, Nov 2: Tottenham and Eintracht Frankfurt both came from behind to win their respective games and secure a place in the last 16 of the Champions League.
At halftime in the final round of group matches on Tuesday, Marseille and Sporting Lisbon were going through from Group D.
But instead it was their opponents who progressed as a stoppage-time winner from Pierre-Emile Højbjerg saw Tottenham beat Marseille 2-1 to top the group and Frankfurt won by the same score in Lisbon to secure second spot on its Champions League debut.
The top two finishers in the other groups on Tuesday had been decided, although not necessarily the order.
Porto beat Atlético Madrid 2-1 to snatch top spot in Group B after Club Brugge was held to a 0-0 draw at Bayer Leverkusen.
Napoli kept hold of first place in Group A despite dropping its first points in the Champions League this season in a 2-0 loss at second-place Liverpool.
Bayern Munich did manage to progress with a perfect record as it beat Inter Milan 2-0 to make it six wins out of six. The four places in Group C had already been decided with Inter having secured second spot ahead of Barcelona.
In a rare occurrence for a group, all four teams had entered the final round of games with a chance to advance.
But Højbjerg scored with the last kick of the game at Stade Velodrome for a goal that lifted Tottenham to the top of Group D above Frankfurt, which was in first place until the Denmark midfielder’s goal.
Lenglet had headed in the equaliser for Tottenham in the 54th minute after a woeful first half from the English side which didn’t have a touch in the opposition penalty box before the break. Tottenham had fallen behind on the stroke of halftime when Chancel Mbemba headed in a corner.
Frankfurt also came from behind, with Kolo Muani scoring a 72nd-minute winner for the visitors. Arthur Gomes had put the hosts ahead in the 39th and Frankfurt equalized with a penalty kick converted by Daichi Kamada in the 62nd.
Atlético Madrid was the heavy favorite to progress from its group but was left lamenting a last-place finish after losing at Porto, which led Group B.
Late goals from Liverpool’s Mo Salah and Darwin Nunez ended Napoli’s unbeaten start to the season in all competitions. (AP)
