Arsenal advances to the round of 16; MU and the risk of saying goodbye from the qualifying round

Arsenal easily had a resounding 6-0 victory over Lens to advance to the round of 16, while MU continued to disappoint and is at risk of being eliminated from the Champions League.

Champions League 2023/24: Arsenal thẳng tiến vòng 1/8; MU và nguy cơ chia tay từ vòng loại

MU dropped an unfortunate victory against Galatasaray in the Champions League group stage. (Source: Getty Images)

After the matches on the morning of November 30, the knockout round of this season's Champions League has officially determined the next two teams to participate: Arsenal and PSV Eindhoven.

Group B Champions League 2023/24 qualifying round: Arsenal, PSV Eindhoven have tickets to continue

Arsenal had no difficulty in winning a "destructive" 6-0 victory in hosting Lens at home in the penultimate round of Group B.

Earlier, in the early match, PSV Eindhoven came from behind to win 3-2 against Sevilla in a decisive match for both teams.

Sevilla started well to take a 2-0 lead thanks to goals from Sergio Ramos and Youssef En-Nesyri. However, PSV rallied strongly to score 3 goals in a row in the second half, thereby successfully turning the score around.

Closing the 5th round of Group B, Arsenal is leading the table with 12 points, 4 points more than the team right behind, PSV Eindhoven.

This means that the Emirates team will go straight to the next round as group winners. The last time the Gunners reached the knockout round of the Champions League was in the 2016/17 season - the last season Arsenal participated in the most prestigious continental club competition.

PSV Eindhoven have 8 points and have also qualified for the knockout stages of this season's Champions League. They have 3 more points than Lens but progress thanks to a better head-to-head record.

MU faces the risk of being eliminated

In contrast to Arsenal, MU continued to disappoint when they only managed a 3-3 draw in their trip to Galatasaray's home field.

MU had a dream start when Alejandro Garnacho and Bruno Fernandes took turns scoring to take a 2-0 lead after just 18 minutes of play.

In the 29th minute, Hakim Ziyech reduced the score for Galatasaray, but early in the second half the Red Devils established a two-goal lead thanks to Scott McTominay's goal to make it 3-1.

With a solid 2-goal lead, MU thought they would take all 3 points back to England and have a good chance of advancing. However, the regrettable mistakes from Andre Onana and the defense made MU pay the price by conceding two goals in a row after Hakim Ziyech and Akturkoglu's shots, resulting in a regrettable 3-3 draw.

This result is actually not too surprising when coach Erik ten Hag's team has always shown inconsistent performance in the Champions League this season.

With only 4 points after 5 matches, MU continues to stand at the bottom of Group A and is at risk of having to say goodbye to the Champions League right from the group stage.

In the final round, MU will face Bayern, and Copenhagen (5 points) will meet Galatasaray (5 points).

With the current situation, if they want to continue, the first thing MU needs to complete is to win against Bayern Munich. Next, they need to wait and hope Copenhagen and Galatasaray can hold each other.

If this happens, the Red Devils will have 7 points, second in the table with 1 point more than two competitors Copenhagen and Galatasaray.

This is the only scenario that can help MU win a ticket to the knockout round of the Champions League this season.

In case one team wins the match between Copenhagen and Galatasaray, no matter how big MU's victory against Bayern Munich will be meaningless.

However, MU will definitely still try to "defeat" Bayern so that at least if they are eliminated from the Champions League, they will have a place in the Europa League instead of losing everything if they lose.

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