By DPA
Hamburg : Former European champions Liverpool comfortably advanced to the knock-out phase of the Champions League with a 4-0 victory at Olympique Marseille.
The Premiership side finished second in Group A on 10 points Tuesday, one behind Porto, who won 2-0 at home against Besiktas. The goals for the Portuguese side were scored by Lucho Gonzalez and Quaresma.
Marseille advance to the UEFA Cup after finishing third with seven points.
Liverpool, who had only one point from their three opening Champions League matches, crowned a glorious come-back scoring 16 goals in three matches.
They had the ideal start as captain Steve Gerrard was brought down in the area in the third minute. Although goalkeeper Steve Mandanda did well to block the shot, Gerrard was on hand to push in the rebound.
Just six minutes later Fernando Torres scored a brilliant individual goal after being set up by Harry Kewell. The Spaniard went around several defenders before pushing the ball past Mandanda.
Dirk Kuyt added a third three minutes after the restart and substitute Ryan Babel made it four in injury time.
Liverpool coach Rafael Benitez said that he was proud of his players as they had managed to qualify after everybody had written them off.
“We always believed in ourselves. I am not surprised that Marseille did not manage to give us more opposition, we played really well and everything was nearly perfect.
“Now we need to think about our next game in the league against Liverpool and that probably will be even more difficult.”
Greek club Olympiakos advanced from the group phase for the first time since the 1998/1999 season with a 3-0 win in Piraeus against Bundesliga side Werder Bremen, who finished third in Group C and qualified for the UEFA Cup.
Ieroklis Stoltidis scored a brace, with Serbian Darko Kovacevic adding a third with a well-taken header.
Spanish club Real Madrid topped the group with a comfortable 3-1 win against Lazio after goals by Raul, Julio Babtista and Robinho. Goran Pandev pulled one back ten minutes from the end, but Tommaso Rocchi missed a golden opportunity to score another when his penalty was saved by Iker Cassilas.
Both Olympiakos and Real finished on 11 points, with the Spanish club having the better head-to-head result.
Chelsea, who had already qualified for the knock-out phase ahead of Tuesday’s final group games, had more of their game against Valencia, but managed no better than a goalless draw.
The Premiership side are joined in the knock-out phase by German club Schalke 04, who beat Rosenborg Trondheim 3-1 to advance to the next round for the first time in their history.
Schalke’s goals were scored by Gerald Asamoah, Kevin Kuranyi and Rafinha, while Yssouf Kone pulled one back for the visitors.
Kuranyi, who was booked after scoring for pulling up his shirt and displaying a message said that he had scored the goal for the family of a friend who had died of cancer recently. “The message was for them. They are very sad at the moment and I am hoping that this gave them a bit of comfort.”
Schalke coach Mirko Slomka, who suspended Mladen Krstajic and Ivan Rakitic for disciplinary reasons ahead of the game, said that he was very pleased that his side had gone through.
“We have never gone through and it was really important for the club, hopefully this will help us for the rest of the season.”
Chelsea won the group on 12 points, while Schalke have eight. Rosenborg finished third in Group B with seven points to qualify for the UEFA Cup.
Last week AC Milan, whose games were brought forward as they are playing in the World Club Cup competition in Japan, made sure of winning Group D with a 1-0 win against Celtic.
The Scottish side finished second ahead of Benfica, who won 2-1 at Shakhtar Donetsk.