Gunners down Partizan

Arsenal reach last 16, Marseille defeat Chelsea in Champions League.

PARIS: Arsenal avoided what would have been a shock exit at the group stage with a 3-1 home victory over Partizan Belgrade in their Champions League Group H match.

Partizan had drawn level in the second-half but goals by substitute Theo Walcott and Samir Nasri ensured Arsene Wenger's side progressed second in the group behind Ukraine's 2009 Uefa Cup winners Shakhtar Donetsk – they beat Sporting Braga 2-0.

Wenger – who is determined to land the one trophy to have eluded him during his tenure at Arsenal – admitted his side had not played well but he had never doubted the end result.

Defending champions defeated

There was also no victorious return for Ivory Coast football icon Didier Drogba to his former club Marseille, as the French champions beat the out of form English champions Chelsea 1-0 through a Brandao goal.

Chelsea were already assured of top spot in the table, with Marseille assuring their place in the last 16 as group runners-up.

Elsewhere two of France's fallen stars Karim Benzema and Franck Ribery ensured they would get positive headlines for once.

Benzema scored a hat-trick for Real Madrid in a 4-0 romp over Auxerre. Ribery scored his first goals for Bayern Munich since April, ruining Basel's hopes of taking the second spot in the group from AS Roma after they succumbed to a 3-0 defeat, while Ukrainian Anatoly Timoschuk rattled home a second shortly after.

Roma rounded off their campaign with a 1-1 draw away at Romanian side Cluj.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 10^th, 2010.