Champions League: Copenhagen beat Galatasaray to reach last 16
In the end, it didn’t matter what Manchester United did.
Copenhagen’s 1-0 win over Galatasaray on Tuesday booked the Danish champion’s place in the knockout stage of the Champions League from second place in Group A and ensured that even a United win over Bayern Munich wouldn’t have been enough for Erik ten Hag’s troubled team.
United, who lost 1-0 to Bayern, had needed Copenhagen and Galatasaray to draw to keep its hopes alive. Galatasaray finished third and will drop into the Europa League, while United ended up rock bottom.
Lukas Lerager scored the only goal of the game but was later sent off.
Meanwhile, Dani Ceballos scored late for Real Madrid to come from behind to beat Union Berlin 3-2 and complete a perfect Champions League group stage.
Ceballos grabbed the winner in the 89th minute, four minutes after Union substitute Alex Král equalized and kept alive Union’s hopes of clinching a Europa League place.
The Germans had needed a win and a favor from Napoli against Braga in the other group game to clinch a Europa League spot as the third-place finisher in the group.
Instead, Madrid made it six wins from six games in Group C. It’s the third time Madrid have achieved the feat after doing so in 2011 and 2014.
The 14-time champion were already assured of topping the group, but coach Carlo Ancelotti said his team wanted to show its respect for the competition by naming a strong starting lineup including Jude Bellingham, Rodrygo and Luka Modrić.
They dominated the first half, but Union goalkeeper Frederik Rønnow saved Modrić’s penalty in the 45th, then launched a huge kickout that Kevin Behrens headed on and David Alaba failed to control.
Kevin Volland held off Lucas Vázquez’s challenge to give Union an unlikely lead
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