United, Barcelona cruise to thumping wins
United, Barcelona cruise to thumping wins
Arsenal and Manchester United have qualified for the knockout stages.

Belgrade: Arsenal and Manchester United qualified for the Champions League knockout stage on Wednesday while Inter Milan took a big step towards the last 16 after fighting back from 2-0 down to beat CSKA Moscow 4-2.

A 0-0 draw at Slavia Prague was enough to see a lacklustre Arsenal team through in Group H and Sevilla look set to join them after two goals by Brazilian midfielder Renato gave them a 2-0 win at bottom club Steaua Bucharest.

Arsene Wenger's side have 10 points, followed by Sevilla with nine and Slavia on four while Steaua have only a slim chance of taking a consolation UEFA Cup berth for third-placed teams after losing their opening four games.

Manchester United equalled their best start in the competition from 2002 with a 4-0 rout of Dynamo Kiev at Old Trafford that left them top of Group F with a maximum 12 points, five ahead of Roma who snatched a late 2-2 draw at Sporting.

The Portuguese have four points and only a slim chance of leapfrogging Roma while Dynamo are out of contention and remain rooted to the bottom with no points.

Carlos Tevez, Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo were on target after 20-year-old defender Gerard Pique opened the scoring with his first goal for the Old Trafford club.

Shock Lead

Inter Milan roared back after Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Esteban Cambiasso scored two apiece to cancel out goals from Brazilian strikers Vagner Love and Jo that handed CSKA a shock 2-0 lead in the opening 30 minutes at the San Siro.

Ibrahimovic pulled one back and Cambiasso equalised within four minutes with the pair on target again in the second half to put Inter in the driving seat atop Group G with nine points, one more than Fenerbahce who beat visitors PSV Eindhoven 2-0.

A Dirk Marcellis own goal and a crisp finish by Semih Senturk kept the Turkish champions well placed to join Inter and left PSV, who have four points, with an uphill task of reaching the last 16 for the fourth time in a row.

Barcelona eased to a 2-0 win over Rangers at the Nou Camp with Ronaldinho having a hand in first-half goals from Thierry Henry and Lionel Messi that put the Catalan side in pole position in Group E with 10 points.

Rangers are second with seven points while third-placed Lyon have six after a 4-2 home win over VfB Stuttgart kept alive their hopes of progressing following last month's 2-0 win over the German champions.

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