CSKA Moscow completed a shock double over Real Madrid by winning 3-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu on Wednesday, but it was not enough to earn it a place in the Europa League.
The Champions League holder had been beaten 1-0 in the Russian capital earlier in its Group G campaign, yet it was already assured of going through as pool winner.
Its visitor, meanwhile, needed to pick up more points than Viktoria Plzen to prolong its European interest, but was denied by a 2-1 win for the Czech side over Roma.
Fedor Chalov, Georgy Schennikov and Arnor Sigurdsson scored the goals for CSKA on a humiliating night for Madrid, which was subjected to whistles from the home fans at full-time.
It was a much-changed Madrid side which dominated possession in the early stages, but it found goalscoring opportunities limited, with Marco Asensio seeing a tame low strike comfortably saved by goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev.
Asensio started to prove a nuisance for the CSKA defence and, having earlier clipped the crossbar with a curling strike, saw another effort tipped over before squandering a golden opportunity to break the deadlock when he was sent through one-on-one with Akinfeev only to fire straight into the goalkeeper's clutches.
When the opener arrived in the 37th minute, it was completely against the run of play.
Sigurdsson carried the ball goalwards before offloading to Chalov on the edge of the box, the striker steadying himself before placing a shot beyond the reach of the diving Thibaut Courtois.
That lead was doubled to the bemusement of Madrid fans six minutes later, when a Mario Fernandes shot bounced off Courtois and Schennikov raced into the box to finish the job.
Madrid launched a rapid counter-attack 10 minutes into the second half, but Isco's dithering allowed Schennikov to recover from his first attempt at a tackle to block the attacker's eventual strike.
And the points were in the bag for CSKA after 73 minutes, when Sigurdsson swept home from the edge of the box to complete a most unlikely victory.
Comments
SHARE