Mohamed Salah extended Liverpool’s perfect Uefa Champions League record as they won 1-0 at Girona to claim a sixth victory out of six in Europe's premier club competition.
Salah converted a 63rd-minute penalty after French referee Benoit Bastien had been advised to take another look at Donny van de Beek’s clumsy challenge on Luis Diaz.
In the process, he became just the 11th man to score 50 goals in the competition – Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappe later also joined that exclusive club – on a night when victory at the Estadi Montilivi meant the six-time European champions will enter 2025 sitting proudly at the top of the table revamped Champions League table.
Under new coach Arne Slot Liverpool are virtually assured a place in the last 16 with only two games remaining in the league phase.
"If you ask me about all six games, I'm really pleased with all the results ... [but] I'm far from pleased about the performance tonight," Slot told reporters in Girona.
"[We had] hardly any control at all over the game, maybe the second half was a bit better but then I'm trying to be positive."
Salah sent Paulo Gazzaniga the wrong way to net his 50th Champions League goal, pulling the Egyptian level with Filippo Inzaghi as the 10th highest goalscorer of all-time in the competition.
The Egypt international is out of contract at the end of the season but his 16 goals across all competitions have been essential in Liverpool's superb first half of the season.
Defeat was harsh on Girona with the Spanish side testing visiting goalkeeper Alisson Becker on several occasions. Michel's side, embarking on their first European campaign, sit 30th in the standings with just one win from six games.
“I almost feel sorry for them because they deserved so much more in this Champions League campaign than the three points they have until now. But we have an incredible goalkeeper,” said Slot, whose team also leads the Premier League.
Liverpool’s two remaining games are against Lille at home and PSV Eindhoven away in January.
Mbappe scores 50th Champions League goal
Jude Bellingham breathed life back into Real Madrid’s campaign as they held off Atalanta to earn a 3-2 victory in Bergamo.
After Charles De Ketelaere had cancelled out Mbappe’s opener from the penalty spot, second-half goals from Vinicius Junior and Bellingham in quick succession put the visitors in charge, although Ademola Lookman’s 65th-minute strike meant the contest was alive until the final whistle.
It was only Madrid's third win in the competition's revamped league phase and leaves the 15-time champions in the unseeded play-off positions in 18th place.
“It’s a very important win. Not everyone wins here. We suffered and competed. In the Champions League, you have to suffer,” Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti said. “It’s still difficult to finish in the top eight, but we have two games left to earn points.”
Madrid are now three points from the top eight positions with matches against Salzburg and Brest remaining in their league phase campaign and the rest of this week's fixtures coming up on Wednesday.
"I don't know if we can get into top eight, but the goal is obvious, we need to win both the matches that we have left," Ancelotti said.
Defeat dropped Atalanta down to ninth on 11 points with matches against Sturm Graz and Barcelona completing their league phase.
"It happened so fast ... a draw would have possibly better reflected the balance of play but maybe, losing like we did will hurt us more and force us to improve," said Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini.
"The defeat had nothing to do with luck or anything like that and that means that we still need to tweak a few things to get to their level."
Villa target top-eight finish
Ross Barkley took Aston Villa a step closer to automatic qualification with a late winner against RB Leipzig in Germany.
Villa had led twice through John McGinn and Jhon Duran, but equalisers from Lois Openda and Christoph Baumgartner kept Leipzig in it until substitute Barkley struck five minutes from time to snatch a 3-2 victory.
That sent them up to third in the table ahead of Wednesday’s games and with matches against Monaco and Celtic to come, Villa have an excellent chance of finishing in the top eight.
That would mean they would avoid a play-off round to make it through to the last 16 and Villa manager Unai Emery says that is the target.
“Today was key. Juventus at home, we were thinking more to win but in the end we accepted the draw because it was important for a point to be more or less in the top 24,” he told Amazon Prime.
“Today was a match we were thinking at the beginning was key to be a contender to be in the top eight with the last two matches to be played.
“It is going to be difficult and we have to get some more points but we now have the possibility to achieve this option."
Olise leads Bayern rout
France international Michael Olise produced a moment of magic to set the seal on Bayern Munich’s demolition of Shakhtar Donetsk and ease them towards the knockout stage.
Olise’s brilliant stoppage-time run and finish capped a 5-1 victory for the Germans, in which he had early scored from the penalty spot, in Gelsenkirchen.
Kevin’s fifth-minute strike had given the home side the perfect start, but Konrad Laimer levelled before Thomas Muller’s 55th goal in the competition sent the visitors in ahead at the break and set the stage for Olise’s double either side of Jamal Musiala’s strike.
Goals from Goncalo Ramos, Nuno Mendes and substitute Desire Doue – his first in the competition – handed French champions Paris Saint-Germain a much-needed three points after a comfortable 3-0 win at RB Salzburg.
Nordi Mukiele left it late to end Inter Milan’s unbeaten Champions League record as Bayer Leverkusen claimed a dramatic 1-0 victory at the BayArena.
Mukiele struck in the 90th minute to inflict a first defeat across six games in this season’s competition on the Serie A champions – it was also the first goal they have conceded.
Casper Nielsen came off the bench to fire Club Brugge to a 2-1 home victory over Sporting after Eduardo Quaresma’s own goal had handed them a way back into the game following Geny Catamo’s early opener.
Julien Le Cardinal’s first-half strike was enough to handed Brest a 1-0 victory over Eredivisie leaders PSV Eindhoven, while Kasper Schmeichel’s save from Marko Pjaca’s close-range 80th-minute header ensured Celtic returned from Dinamo Zagreb with a 0-0 draw.
