22 Nov 2012

Bad night for British football clubs

11:47 am on 22 November 2012

Titleholders Chelsea are on the brink of an unprecedented group stage exit in the European Champions League after their 3-0 loss to Italian side Juventus in Turin.

With Shakhtar Donetsk qualifying with a 5-2 win at Nordsjaelland in the other Group E match, Juventus need only a point to go through when they visit the Ukrainian champions in their final game next month.

Chelsea's only hope is to beat Nordsjaelland and hope Shakhtar defeat the Serie A champions, otherwise they will become the first defending champions to go out in the group stage since the Champions League began.

Meanwhile Celtic missed a chance to qualify after they were beaten 2-1 by Portugese side Benfica. The second qualifier from the group will be decided in the final round of matches when Benfica play already qualified Barcelona and Celtic play Spartak Moscow.

On a bad night for British clubs, Manchester United were beaten 1-0 by Galatasaray in Turkey, although United had already qualified for the knock-out stage.