Nasri leads City past Roma and into knockout round
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Rome, Italy (SportsNetwork.com) - Samir Nasri scored a goal and set up another in the second half to lead Manchester City to a 2-0 win at Roma in the final round of Champions League Group E play, allowing the English side to advance to the knockout round of the competition.
City entered the match knowing that a win would be enough to help salvage second place in the group behind winners Bayern Munich, and Nasri struck on the hour mark to put the visitors in front before he set up an insurance tally for Pablo Zabaleta four minutes from time.
The loss leaves Roma in third place and headed for the Europa League, while CSKA Moscow lost 3-0 at Bayern on Wednesday to end up on the bottom of the table thanks to goals from Thomas Muller, Sebastian Rode and Mario Gotze.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}City goalkeeper Joe Hart was the busier of the two netminders in the first half and he did well to keep out a shot from Gervinho to keep his side level.
On the hour mark, Nasri finally provided the breakthrough as he dribbled to the top of the penalty area and lashed a shot off the left post and into the net past a diving Morgan De Sanctis.
The home side needed two goals to advance at that point, and they were sunk in the 86th minute when Nasri laid off a ball for Pablo Zabaleta to fire past De Sanctis, clinching a place in the knockout round for City.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Group F's top spot was still on the line heading into the final round of fixtures on Wednesday, and Barcelona claimed it with a 3-1 comeback win over PSG.
Both sides are going through, but Barca will do so as group winners after goals from Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez, which came after Zlatan Ibrahimovic opened the scoring for the French outfit 15 minutes into the contest.
Ajax clinched third place in the other match in Group F as Lasse Schone scored twice in a 4-0 win over APOEL, sending the Dutch side to the Europa League.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Chelsea handled Sporting Lisbon, 3-1, to finish on top of Group G, while the loss also dropped Sporting to third behind Schalke, which claimed a 1-0 win at Maribor to finish in second place and reach the round of 16.
The meeting between the top two teams in Group H, FC Porto and Shakhtar Donetsk, held no meaning as both sides were already through to the next round, and they finished in a 1-1 draw thanks to an 87th-minute goal from Porto's Vincent Aboubakar.
Athletic Bilbao claimed third place and a spot in the Europa League after notching a 2-0 home win against BATE Borisov courtesy of second-half goals from Mikel San Jose and Markel Susaeta.