Sparta leave it to the last minute

Real Madrid CF, Manchester United FC and Chelsea FC all won their UEFA Champions League groups tonight as AC Sparta Praha and RC Celta de Vigo joined them in the second stage.

Groups conclude
Matchday 6 brought Groups E-H to a conclusion, with Panathinaikos FC winning at Rangers FC and Olympique de Marseille drawing at FK Partizan to qualify for the UEFA Cup. The duo will be joined in Friday's third-round draw by Club Brugge KV, who defeated AFC Ajax 2-1, and Besiktas JK. Rangers, Partizan, S.S. Lazio and AFC Ajax were eliminated from European competition.

Dramatic end
The most dramatic finale's came in Groups G and Group H, the latter already won by Milan. The European champions opened the scoring against Celta through Kaka, only for Jesuli to level within minutes at the end of the first half. José Ignacio Sáenz put the Spanish side ahead in the San Siro on 71 minutes and Celta hung on to dash the hopes of Brugge, conquerors of Ajax. Bengt Sæternes scored Brugge's winner after Wesley Sonck cancelled out Rune Lange's opener, but three points were only enough for a place in the UEFA Cup.

Besiktas relief
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Wayne Bridge scored for Chelsea against Besiktas, who would have qualified as runners-up in Group G had Sparta not defeated Lazio 1-0 courtesy of Marek Kincl's strike three minutes into added time. The Italian side finished at the foot of the pool.

Solari opener
Madrid scored the first goal of the night, through Santiago Solari, but were pegged back by Derlei's penalty following Míchel Salgado's foul on Deco. There were no further goals in the second half, meaning the Spanish champions won Group F and Porto finished second. Marseille clinched third spot and a UEFA Cup berth as Ahmed Hossam 'Mido' scored in a 1-1 draw at Partizan, who equalised through Andrija Delibašic.

United on top
Manchester United won Group E from VfB Stuttgart after defeating the Bundesliga leaders 2-0 at Old Trafford, avenging an earlier 2-1 defeat in the process. Ruud van Nistelrooij put his side ahead when equalling Denis Law's record of 28 European goals for United, and Ryan Giggs doubled the lead. Panathinaikos finished in third after fighting back from a goal down to beat Rangers 3-1 at Ibrox, Raimondas Zutautas, Angelos Basinas and Michalis Konstantinou on target. Matchday 6 concludes tomorrow, when the final six qualifying berths will be filled.