Last year's winners Chelsea are on the brink of making an ignominious early exit in the Champions League, after Juventus thumped the English side 3-0 in Turin, with Barcelona and Shakhtar Donetsk confirming progress into the knockout rounds.
Manchester United, who had already sealed passage into the next round, lost 1-0 at Galatasaray, while Celtic went from the high of beating Barcelona in the previous round to losing at Benfica. Bayern Munich and Valencia are also through to the knockout rounds after playing out a 1-1 draw, and Lille getting the better of BATE Borisov.
However, all eyes were in Turin, in a game where Fernando Torres was consigned to the bench, meaning Chelsea were playing with a "false 9" putting Eden Hazard up top, with right-back Cesar Azpilicueta playing in right midfield.
That ploy did not work really well as Juventus took control right from the beginning, with Chelsea, apart from a Hazard effort, rarely threatening Gianluigi Buffon's goal in the first half. The deserved goal for the Italian champions came in the 38th minute, when Fabio Quagliarella deflected Andrea Prilo's weak shot into the back of the net, with Petr Cech, caught unawares, going the other way.
Just past the hour mark, Juve made it 2-0, Arturo Vidal getting in on the scoresheet, albeit aided by a deflection off Ramires.
Substitute Sebastian Giovinco made added the gloss with a nice finish past Cech in injury time, as Chelsea now need Shakhtar to beat Juve, with the Blues themselves getting the better of FC Nordsjaelland in the final round to have any chance of qualifying.
Shakhtar ensured progress with a 5-2 win over the Danish side, meaning they have ten points from five matches to Juve's nine. Chelsea are third on seven points, while Nordsjaelland are out of the running on one point.
In Moscow, Lionel Messi scored two goals to help Barcelona enter the last-16 with a comfortable 3-0 win over Spartak, with Daniel Alves opening the scoring. Also joining Barcelona in the knockout rounds were Valencia and Bayern.
Sofiane Feghouli looked like he might have gotten the winner for the home side in the 77th minute, but Thomas Muller popped up with an equalizer five minutes later, to ensure progress for both teams.
In Group H, it will be a straight fight between CFR Cluj and Galatasaray, after both sides picked up victories over Braga and Man United respectively.
Burak Yilmaz scored the only goal of the game for Galatasaray against a youngish United side, missing the likes of Robin Van Persie, Wayne Rooney, Patrice Evra and Rio Ferdinand.
Results: Group E: Juventus 3-0 Chelsea; Nordsjaelland 2-5 Shakhtar Donetsk; Group F: BATE 0-2 Lille; Valencia 1-1 Bayern Munich; Group G: Spartak Moscow 0-3 Barcelona; Benfica 2-1 Celtic; Group H: CFR Cluj 3-1 Braga; Galatasaray 1-0 Manchester United.
