LONDON: English champions Manchester City are finally starting to show they can compete in Europe.

City concluded one of the great Champions League Houdini acts on Wednesday as they qualified for the knockout stages with goals from Samir Nasri and Pablo Zabaleta sinking AS Roma 2-0 to eliminate the Italians at the Stadio Olimpico.

Manuel Pellegrini’s men started the final round of group play in last place in Group ‘E’ but finished second with group winners Bayern Munich’s 3-0 victory at home to CSKA Moscow giving Roma the consolation of a spot in the Europa League.

With two final last-16 places were up for grabs, Schalke 04 were the other qualifiers on the night, their 1-0 win away at Maribor thanks to 19-year-old Max Meyer’s 62nd-minute goal, sealing their place as rivals Sporting Lisbon went down 3-1 against Group ‘G’ winners Chelsea.

Schalke’s qualification makes it the second successive season that all four German representatives have made it through to the last 16, Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen also having progressed.

The attacking trio of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez were all on target to lead Barcelona to a thrilling 3-1 comeback win over Paris St Germain as the Spanish club snatched first place in Group ‘F’ from the French champions.

Ajax hammered APOEL Nicosia 4-0 to advance to the Europa League by finishing third in the group.

Athletic Bilbao also secured a berth in the continent’s secondary competition when Mikel San Jose and Markel Susaeta struck in a 2-0 win for the Basque club at home to BATE Borisov in Group ‘H’.

FC Porto, already guaranteed top spot in the section, completed the group stage with an unbeaten record after a stunning late strike from Vincent Aboubakar gave them a 1-1 draw at home to second-placed Shakhtar Donetsk.

The draw for the last 16 of is made on Monday, with teams from Germany (4), Spain (3) and England (3) making up 10 of the qualifiers.

City, along with PSG and Juventus, arguably will be the sides most group winners want to avoid after advancing for the second straight season thanks to wins over Bayern and Roma in their last two games.

AMSTERDAM: Ajax’s Arkadiusz Milik (R) shoots to score past APOEL goalkeeper Ukro Rafael Pardo during their Champions League match at Amsterdam Arena.—AP

“People wrote us off without our key players [like Sergio Aguero and Vincent Kompany] but we’re a strong unit, we believed in what we could do,” City keeper Joe Hart told Sky Sports.

“You don’t win two Premier League titles in three years easily. We have resolve, character and fantastic players. Add that together and you’ve got a chance.”

City, requiring at least a score-draw to go through to the knock-out phase, were dominated for large periods of the match but Nasri turned the game around on the hour when he fired a long, rising thunderbolt past Morgan De Sanctis from 25 metres before the Frenchman laid on a second for the Zabaleta in the 86th minute.

Bayern took the lead when Thomas Mueller converted a penalty in the first half before Sebastian Rode and Mario Goetze added goals late in the match that left CSKA bottom of Group ‘E’. Bayern finished with 15 points, with City on eight points.

For his side to advance, Schalke coach Roberto Di Matteo required a win in Slovenia and for Chelsea, the team he led to the Champions League title in 2012, to beat Sporting at Stamford Bridge.

And an opportunist goal by substitute Meyer following a goalkeeper error lifted Schalke above Sporting into second place with eight points ahead of the Portuguese side’s seven.

“We knew that Chelsea was leading at half-time but it was a tricky game,” Schalke’s Dennis Aogo said. “We knew that one goal could knock us out.”

Chelsea gave a helping hand to Di Matteo and finished comfortably clear at the top of Group ‘G’ after a Cesc Fabregas penalty and a rasping strike from Andre Schuerrle set them on their way and John Obi Mikel rounded off the scoring after Jonathan Silva had given Sporting hope.

Top spot — and a likely easier last-16 match — was up for grabs at the Nou Camp and Zlatan Ibrahimovic put PSG ahead against his old club Barca in the 15th.

Messi equalised four minutes later, Neymar gave the Catalans the lead with a spectacular long-range shot in the 42nd and Suarez tapped in the third in the 77th — his first at the Nou Camp since his move from Liverpool.

APOEL needed to win in order to overtake third-placed Ajax but Denmark midfielder Lasse Schone scored either side of half-time with Davy Klaassen and Arkadiusz Milik adding the other two as the Dutch side finished with five points, four clear of APOEL but a long way adrift of Barca (15) and PSG (13).

Belarussian club BATE bowed out of the Champions League with a record number of goals conceded in group play — 24. The previous record of 22 goals was set by Dinamo Zagreb in 2011-12.

Porto, who finished Group ‘H’ with 14 points, five ahead of Shakhtar, after Aboubakar rifled home an unstoppable shot from 25 metres in the 87th to cancel out Taras Stepanenko’s 50th-minute header for the Ukrainians.

Published in Dawn, December 12th, 2014