Champions League trio advances with brio

With Spain's Champions League participants all safely through to the knockout phase of Europe's elite club competition, the only question that remains to be answered in the final round of first-phase matches next month is whether Valencia can join Real Madrid and Barcelona in the pot of group winners. Unai Emery's team lit up the Mestalla with an electric performance to defeat Turkish champion Bursaspor 6-1 and will travel to Old Trafford for the concluding Group C game. Roberto Soldado, who scored twice to take his tally to five in the tournament, is high on confidence ahead of the clash with 2008 winner Manchester United.

"We are an ambitious group," Soldado told Uefa's website. "We will go to Old Trafford to win and clinch the group. Performing so well against Bursaspor was a real team triumph. Team spirit is the key to Valencia. Perhaps people doubt us because we have been a little inconsistent in the league, but we will banish those doubts."

Manchester United, which scraped past a dogged Glasgow Rangers at Ibrox courtesy of a late Wayne Rooney penalty, won the away fixture at Mestalla 0-1, but Valencia's five-goal edge in the scoring differential means an away win would seal its status as group winner.

"The objective obviously was to qualify for the last 16, but we want to do it as first in the group," said Emery after the match. Despite its humbling at Mestalla, Bursaspor could take some comfort from the match- Pablo Batalla's consolation strike was the Turkish side's first away goal in European competition.

Barcelona ensured that it would top Group D with its inaugural Champions League win on Greek soil at Panathinaikos. Leo Messi scored for the 10th successive game and Pedro Rodríguez added a brace in a comfortable win for Pep Guardiola's team ahead of next Monday's clásico against Real Madrid at Camp Nou.

"I do not think my team is unstoppable," Guardiola said of another comprehensive victory. "We are happy to have won the group and we will see how we are organized when February comes." Rubin Kazan, which has proved Barça is stoppable itself and still holds the honor of being unbeaten by Guardiola's Barça, helped the 2009 winner to the top of the group with a 1-0 home win over Copenhagen to keep its own qualification hopes alive. Christian Noboa scored only the second goal of the Russian champion's European campaign and Kazan will hope its proud record against Barça lasts 90 more minutes.

Real Madrid had already qualified before it even set foot in Ajax's Amsterdam Arena, but still cruised to a 4-0 win to ensure it will also go into the draw for the last 16 in the pot of group winners. In all, 12 teams have qualified for the first knockout round with a game to spare: Inter Milan, Real, Schalke 04, Lyon, Barcelona, Manchester United, AC Milan, Chelsea, Valencia, Marseille, Bayern Munich and Tottenham Hotspur.

The four remaining sides in the draw will come from Groups D, E, and H. Either Kazan or Copenhagen will join Barcelona from Group C; Roma and Basel will contest the final spot in Group D against CFR Cluj and Bayern respectively, with Basel holding the advantage of a 5-4 aggregate edge over the Italians in the games between the two. Roma is favorite, however, with Romania's Cluj losing all its matches since an opening-day win over the Swiss side. From Group H, two of Shakhtar Donetsk, Arsenal and Sporting Braga will go through, with the Ukrainians and the Portuguese squaring off directly- Shakhtar has home advantage and needs just a point to win the group- while Arsenal hosts point-less Partizan Belgrade in London.

The group winner will be drawn against the second-placed teams, with no two sides from the same country able to meet in the second round. Danger sides in the second set of teams could include Tottenham, Inter, Milan, Arsenal or the Schalke of Spain's Raúl.

Real will be particularly eager to avoid Lyon, which it has never beaten and which eliminated the Spanish giant in the round of 16 last season, Real's sixth consecutive exit at that stage.