He became the first player to reach 50 Champions League goals when he was on target in the 2-1 group-stage victory over Olympiakos in 2005.
Co-hosts Ukraine saw a goal not given during a must-win group-stage match with England, when John Terry cleared Artim Milevskiy's shot after it looked to have crossed the line.
Alvaro Negredo, who had played just 30 minutes at the tournament as a substitute in Spain's 1-0 group-stage win over Croatia, did little to justify Del Bosque's surprise decision to name him to the starting lineup.
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Platini reserved special mention for tournament hosts South Africa and their supporters, who rallied around Ghana - the only African nation to advance past the group stage - once their own team had been eliminated.
No sporting event has greater popularity or higher stakes than soccer's World Cup, and they manage to sort that whole clambake out in about a month with a round-robin group stage that shifts to a single-elimination knockout round.
In contrast, the UEFA Cup never produced such a star-studded field since it adopted the group-stage format in 2004.
Bayern Munich made certain of the runners-up spot -- and a place in the Champions League group stage next season -- with a 2-1 home win over Stuttgart who could have overtaken the deposed champions.
Schofield claimed 17 victims in this season's Twenty20 Cup, making him the leading wicket-taker in the group stage, and also took 13 in the 50-over Friends Provident Trophy.
And Slovakia, who had beaten top-ranked Russia in the group stage before knocking out defending champions Sweden in the quarter-finals, came within inches of taking the host nation into overtime.
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Wednesday's match was a group-stage tie in the AFC Cup, the Asian Football Confederation's second-tier club tournament.
Thompson's last game for the club was their Heineken Cup group stage 17-8 defeat to Biarritz on 21 January.
Their introduction this season will always be remembered for Tevez's clash with Mancini in Munich, which precipitated a group-stage exit from Europe's premier club tournament.
The title triumph also guarantees Champions League group-stage football next season after suffering the disappointment of crashing out of Europe in qualifying at the start of this term.
It capped a week which started with Chelsea's embarrassing group-stage exit from the Champions League and which will end with the squad traveling to Japan for the Club World Cup.
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In Dublin, Leinster has also switched its game against Cardiff Blues to the national team's Aviva Stadium, where the club already attracted a group-stage record crowd of 46, 365 for its victory over Bath in December.
Sparta Prague moved off the bottom into second on four points with their first group-stage win since 2003, as the Czech side defeated Romania's CFR Cluj 2-0 with first-half goals from Juraj Kucka (15) and Roman Hubnik (32).
Morgan Stanley (nyse: MWD - news - people ) reportedly rejected the group, as did late-stage venture capitalists, because of concerns over how the family-run company would handle corporate governance.
Morgan Stanley (nyse: MS - news - people ) reportedly rejected the group, as did late-stage venture capitalists, because of concerns over how the family-run company would handle corporate governance.
The tournament format sees the eight teams split into two groups of four for a round-robin stage, before the top two teams from each group progress to knock-out semi-finals and then the final on June 28.
Zamalek's victory avoided a North African derby in the next stage - by finishing top of the group, the Egyptian side will play Tout Puissant Mazembe in the semi-finals.
Former Everton and Scotland winger Pat Nevin watched at Villa Park as Pacult's side reached the group stage with an away-goals victory.
Of the three one-day competitions, the Friends Provident Trophy begins on 19 April with yet another change of format, now including quarter-finals after the group stage.
Ghana had defeated Nigeria 1-0 and 4-1 in the group stage of the 1993 and 2001 tournaments respectively and the Black Satellites beat the Flying Eagles in the final of the 1999 tourney.
In a stunning upset Sunday, Spain was sent home from the Olympics with a 1-0 loss to Honduras, eliminating one of the gold-medal favorites at the group stage and ending Spain's bid to become the first nation to hold the World Cup, European and Olympic soccer titles at the same time.
Morgan Stanley reportedly rejected the group, as did late-stage venture capitalists, because of concerns over how the family-run company would handle corporate governance.
"It's called the Champions League for a reason - until you get to the group stage you are not really in it, " Bernie Kingsley, chairman of the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters' Trust, told BBC Sport.
Spurs are desperate to avoid the fate suffered by Everton, who sneaked fourth spot ahead of Merseyside rivals Liverpool in 2005 but agonisingly missed out on a place in the group stage after losing their qualifying play-off against Villarreal of Spain.
In the past week, the site's Beacon advertising program, which notifies a user's friends when he or she has made purchases at certain online retailers, incited 46, 000 Facebook members to stage a digital sit-in by joining a Facebook group created by MoveOn.org called "Facebook: stop invading my privacy!"
Having lost their Group I clash 4-0 two weeks ago, AEK earned their first points of the group stage thanks to Daniel Majstorovic's strike two minutes before the break.
David Brin, an author of science fiction who also resigned from the SETI group, accused it of attempting to stage-manage the discussion.
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