Juventus rescued a 1-1 draw at Borussia Moenchengladbach in their Champions League Group D game on Tuesday to edge closer to qualifying for the knockout stage with two matches left to play.
The Italians, last season’s finalists in the competition, are on eight points, one behind leaders Manchester City and five ahead of third placed Sevilla.
Gladbach, who have won all six league matches under coach Andre Schubert, took an 18th minute lead with Fabian Johnson after early pressure but Juve struck back a minute from halftime with a volley from Stephan Licthsteiner. Juve had Brazilian Hernanes sent off in the 53rd minute for a wild challenge on Alvaro Dominguez but managed to hold on to the draw despite Gladbach’s second-half attacks.
Benfica secured a 2-1 win over visitors Galatasaray with second-half goals from Jonas and captain Luisao but finished with 10 men in their Group C clash.
Benfica are top with nine points from four matches above Atletico Madrid. Galatasaray are third on four points.
Gaitan was dismissed in the 85th minute for a second yellow card after a foul and will miss the next match against Astana.
Jonas opened the scoring for the Portuguese with his first goal in the competition this season after the ball came to him near the penalty spot after 52 minutes.
Six minutes later, the Istanbul side equalised when Lukas Podolski fired past Julio Cesar from inside the box.
Benfica went back in front when long-serving captain Luisao fired into the top corner from inside the area in the 67th.
In the early kick-off Atletico Madrid were held to a goalless draw away to a battling Astana, denting the Spaniards' hopes of finishing top of Group C.
The visitors, who travelled more than 5,500 kilometres from Madrid to the Kazakh capital, started well and were lively in the early stages, creating some decent chances.
Astana defender Evgeni Postnikov produced an excellent block in the 11th minute to keep out Tiago’s goalbound effort.
Fernando Torres, who was looking for his 100th goal for Atletico, almost reached the landmark after the half hour mark, but poked his shot wide after capitalising on a defensive mistake from the Kazakh side.
Astana held on for a deserved point, but remain bottom of the group with two points.
Juergen Locadia and Luuk de Jong scored second-half goals as PSV Eindhoven secured a 2-0 Champions League victory at home against VfL Wolfsburg on to blow Group B wide open.
The win moves PSV into second place, level with Wolfsburg on six points from four matches, but ahead of the Germans on goals scored with their head-to-head record identical.
Shakhtar Donetsk ended their goal famine in spectacular fashion by thrashing Malmo 4-0 in a clash between the third and fourth-placed teams in Group A.
Oleksandr Gladkyy netted in the first half for Shakhtar before captain Darijo Srna (penalty), substitute Eduardo and Alex Teixeira killed off Malmo after the break in a one-sided encounter at the Lviv Arena.
Eduardo, who replaced Gladkyy at the start of the second period, redirected a long-range shot from Bernard into the net to make it 3-0.
Teixeira completed the rout with a header in the 73rd minute after good work from Srna and Taison.
