Arsenal's goalkeeper Manuel Almunia (right) fails to stop FC Porto's Bruno Alves (centre) from scoring the opening goal during their Champions League group G soccer match at the Dragao stadium in Porto, northern Portugal, yesterday. Porto won 2-0. - ap

london (ap):

Defending champion Manchester United, Bayern Munich, FC Porto and Juventus finished at the top of their Champions League groups yesterday, making them seeded teams for the knockout round ahead of next week's draw.

Man United drew with Aalborg 2-2 in Group E, Bayern beat Lyon 3-2 in Group F, Porto defeated Arsenal 2-0 in Group G and Juventus were held to a 0-0 draw by BATE Borisov in Group H.

Salvaged a draw

Wayne Rooney's second-half goal salvaged the draw for Man United, which trailed Aalborg at Old Trafford. But the one point made sure the Red Devils finished ahead of Villarreal, which lost at last-place Celtic 2-0 in Group E.

"Every game at home we try to win, especially after taking the lead so early, so we are disappointed not to get three points," Rooney said. "Possibly the tempo of our game was not quick enough in the first half and to concede two sloppy goals, we are really disappointed with that, but we still finished top of the group."

Raul Gonzalez scored twice to lead Madrid to its 3-0 victory over Zenit St. Petersburg and become the all-time top scorer in European club competitions with 66 goals.

It was Madrid's first game with Juande Ramos in charge, the former Sevilla and Tottenham coach taking over after Bernd Schuster was fired on Tuesday.

"The most positive thing is the clear and dominating victory," Ramos said. "The best thing is that we have gained some confidence in ourselves which will help against Barcelona (on Saturday)."

Although Juventus and Madrid finished with 12 points each, Juventus finished at the top because of their two victories over the Spanish club.

Miroslav Klose scored twice as Bayern raced into a 3-0 lead at Lyon, which replied through Sidney Govou and Karim Benzema.

"We probably mentally relaxed a bit and thought, 'It's OK,' but you can't afford to do that against a team like Lyon," Bayern coach Juergen Klinsmann said. "We were in trouble and we had a couple of brilliant saves from Michael Rensing (Bayern goalkeeper)."

Qualifiers

Both Porto and Arsenal had already qualified but goals by Bruno Alves and Lisandro Lopez gave the Portuguese club, a two-time Champions League winner, first place even though they lost at Arsenal 4-0 on September 30.

With the 16 qualifiers already known before yesterday, the only issues left on the final day of group play were who finished first in the groups and which eliminated clubs had the consolation of playing in the next round of the UEFA Cup.

The other four group winners going into the December 19 draw are AS Roma, Panathinaikos, Barcelona and Liverpool. The eight runners-up are Chelsea, Inter Milan, Sporting Lisbon, Atletico Madrid, Villarreal, Lyon, Arsenal and Madrid.

Because of the competition rules, group winners can't face each other and neither can teams from the same group or same countries. But it still means that the draw on December 19 could produce eye-catching match-ups such as Manchester United vs. Real Madrid or Barcelona vs. Chelsea.

The eight third-place teams which drop into the UEFA Cup are Bordeaux, Werder Bremen, Shakhtar Donetsk, Marseille, Aalborg, Fiorentina, Dynamo Kiev and defending champion Zenit St. Petersburg.

Yesterday, Dynamo Kiev edged Fenerbahce 1-0 in Group H and Fiorentina won at Steaua Bucharest 1-0 in Group F. Aalborg had already made it from Group E.