Arsenal managed to book their spot in the knock-out stages of the Champions League with a 3-1 win over Partizan Belgrade, while Chelsea suffered their first defeat in the competition this season at Marseille.
The Gunners started brightly but were frustrated for the first 30 minutes of the tie by a resolute Partizan side. However, Robin van Persie won a penalty which he calmly dispatched himself to hand Arsenal a 1-0 lead at half-time.
The Serbian side made Arsenal sweat when Cleo levelled matters early in the second-half as his shot took a wicked deflection off Sebastien Squillaci before looping over a stranded Lukasz Fabianski.
Arsenal were always the stronger side and their persistence paid off as second-half substitute Theo Walcott restored their lead, before Samir Nasri put the game to bed to make it 3-1 late on.
Had Braga won on their trip to the Ukraine anything less than a victory for the Gunners would have resulted in Europa League football at the Emirates this season but the Portuguese side were beaten 2-0 by Shakhtar Donetsk.
Chelsea had already guaranteed top-spot in Group F ahead of their visit to the Marseille but boss Carlo Ancelotti chose to start with key man Didier Drogba regardless. With both the French side and the Blues already through to the next round the contest was never going to be the most exciting of affairs but there were talking points in the first half.
Chelsea were awarded an early penalty after Salomon Kalou was brought down in the area but the referee changed his mind, under pressure from the Marseille players, after consulting his assistant.
Drogba was removed from the action in the second-half and received a standing ovation from the Marseille fans, with the French side the club where he made his name.
The bragging rights went to the French side though as Brandao snatched a late winner for the hosts.
In Group G Real Madrid destroyed French side Auxerre 4-0, with Cristiano Ronaldo amongst the goal scorers. Real had already qualified from Group G and AC Milan will also be involved in the latter stages despite slipping to a 2-0 defeat at the San Siro to Ajax, who will now be competing in the Europa League.
In Group E a 1-1 draw at CFR Cluj-Napoca was good enough for Roma to secure their spot in the next round, the Romanian side's European dream came to an end despite Basle's 3-0 defeat at Bayern Munich.
In Slovakia crowd disruption at the start of the game halted proceedings in the contest between MSK Zilina and Spartak Moscow, the other two side's in Chelsea's Group F. When the action resumed the Russian side managed to secure a 2-1 victory, with Spartak heading into the Europa League after finishing third in the group.Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email