By DPA
Hamburg : Barcelona celebrated an easy win in the Champions League at home to Glasgow Rangers to maintain their steady progress towards the knockout stages while Manchester United booked their place with a 4-0 thumping of Dynamo Kiev.
In Group H, an under-strength Arsenal side missing regulars such as Cesc Fabregas and Koulo Toure booked their place in the next phase with a scoreless draw against Slavia Prague Wednesday.
Arsene Wenger’s side remain top with 10 points but are now just one clear of Sevilla, who overcame Steaua Bucharest 2-0 with both goals coming from Renato.
First-half goals from Thierry Henry and Lionel Messi helped Barca to a 2-0 win over Rangers, a result that sees the Catalan giants move three points clear of their Scottish rivals in Group E.
In the other match in Group E, French champions Lyon moved to within a point of second-placed Rangers with a 4-2 win at home to VFB Stuttgart.
Lyon got off to the perfect start with a goal from Hatem Ben Arfa on six minutes and after a quarter of an hour it was 2-0 after Kim Kallstrom fired home an unstoppable shot.
Mario Gomez pulled one back for Stuttgart a minute later before Ben Arfa restored Lyon’s two-goal cushion with his second on 37 minutes.
Gomez was on target again 11 minutes after the restart, steering the ball home from all of five metres to reduce the deficit to one.
Stuttgart then had a glorious opportunity to equalise from the penalty spot after Gomez was wrongly adjudged to have been fouled in the area but Thomas Hitzlsberger’s spot kick was well saved by Remy Vercoutre in the Lyon goal.
After this, Lyon always looked the more likely to score and Juninho finally made it 4-2 in stoppage time.
English Premier League leaders Manchester United beat Dynamo Kiev 4-0 to register their fourth win in succession in Group F and book their place in the next phase.
“It might not have been the perfect performance but it was the perfect result,” said coach Sir Alex Ferguson afterwards.
French defender Gerard Pique opened the scoring for United on 31 minutes after the Kiev defence failed to clear and Carlos Tevez made it 2-0 eight minutes before the break after some neat interplay with Wayne Rooney on the edge of the box.
Rooney got on the score sheet himself in the second half, getting on the end of a Nani cross to fire home. Cristiano Ronaldo completed the rout with a superb solo effort shortly before full time.
“We’re delighted we’re through. Maybe we can now rest a few players for the final two games,” said Rooney, who seemed a bit disappointed with the standard of opposition.
“It was like a training session. They showed no enthusiasm to play the game.”
United have now a maximum 12 points from four matches, five clear of Roma, who played out a 2-2 draw with Sporting Lisbon.
Inter Milan came from two goals down at home to CSKA Moscow in Group G to eventually prevail 4-2. The visitors went ahead through early goals from Jo and Vagner Love before Zlatan Ibrahimovic pulled one back on 32 minutes for the Serie A leaders.
Esteban Cambiasso levelled matters two minutes later before making it 3-2 on 67 minutes. Ibrahimovic completed the remarkable comeback with his second of the game.
Inter remain top of the group with nine points, one clear of Fenerbahce who beat PSV Eindhoven 2-0.