Champions League roundup: Atlético hopes of progress hit by Qarabag draw

Atlético Madrid’s Champions League hopes hang in the balance after they were held to a 1-1 draw at home by the Group C minnows Qarabag despite playing a large part of the second half with an extra man.

The home side had far more chances than Qarabag in the first half but fell behind in the 40th minute when the Spanish midfielder Michel rose to meet a corner and his header was too powerful for Jan Oblak to keep out.

The midfielder Thomas Partey equalised in the 56th minute with a thunderous long-range strike and Atlético were given another boost when Qarabag’s Pedro Henrique was sent off a minute later. Yet despite laying siege to the visitors’ area, Diego Simeone’s side could not find a winner and their defender Stefan Savic was sent off for a second booking in the 88th minute.

Altlético, Champions League runners up in 2014 and 2016 and semi-finalists last season, are third on three points, five behind the group leaders Roma and four behind Chelsea.

Barcelona lead Group D after their 0-0 draw away to Olympiakos, who earned their first point this season. It was the first time Barça failed to score in a Champions League group game for five years. Victory in Greece would have booked Barcelona’s passage to the knock-out phase but the three points proved elusive on a night when Luis Suárez hitting the top of the crossbar was as close as the visitors came.

Luis Suárez



Luis Suárez hit the bar but Barcelona could not find a breakthrough against Olympiakos. Photograph: Louisa Gouliamaki/AFP/Getty Images

Gonzalo Higuaín scored a clinical goal to earn Juventus a 1-1 draw at Sporting after the Serie A side had been rattled by their opponents. Sporting, the better team in the first half, took a deserved lead through their Brazilian midfielder Bruno César in the 20th minute.

As Juve crept back into the game, Rui Patricio made a brilliant save to deny Higuaín in the 69th minute but was powerless to stop the Argentina forward equalising 10 minutes later.

Paris St Germain qualified for the last 16 in emphatic fashion when they extended their perfect Group B record with a 5-0 home win against Anderlecht, with the full-back Layvin Kurzawa scoring a second half hat-trick.

Neymar scored the second goal on the stroke of half-time, with a free-kick from 22 yards, after Marco Verratti’s opener, with Kurzawa completing the scoreline after the interval.

Providing they each win their next game, PSG and Bayern will battle it out for top spot in the final round of matches in December. Verratti, the PSG midfielder, said: “After scoring the first goal we played more freely and managed to secure a nice team victory. Everybody contributed, with notably the strikers helping with the defensive tasks.”

CSKA Moscow scored twice in the second half to beat Basel 2-1 as the Russians gave themselves a Champions League lifeline and frustrated their opponents’ hopes of booking an early spot in the last 16.

Basel had looked set to wrap up a place in the knockout stage with two games to spare after Luca Zuffi’s instinctive lob gave them the lead after 32 minutes, but the match was turned on its head following the break.

Alan Dzagoev came off the bench to level in the 65th minute with a composed chip before CSKA’s Swedish midfielder Pontus Wernbloom fired in a vicious drive with 11 minutes remaining to complete a superb comeback.

Second-placed Basel are now level on six points with CSKA, with both teams six adrift of Group A leaders Manchester United.