Gunners grateful to Bendtner

Troubled Arsenal clinched their place in the knockout stages of the Champions League for the sixth successive season with an unconvincing 1-0 win against Dynamo Kyiv.

A scrappy game seemed certain to end goalless until substitute Nicklas Bendtner snatched a controversial winner with three minutes left.

The Ukrainian side were furious that the goal was allowed to stand after Cesc Fabregas appeared to have taken a free-kick before they were ready, but it later transpired that the Spaniard had benefited from a dropped ball.

Successive defeats against Aston Villa and Manchester City as well as captain William Gallas' outburst had led to a wave of depression enveloping the Emirates Stadium with Arsene Wenger's critics having a field day.

Wenger responded by handing the captain's armband to Fabregas, but Gallas returned to the starting line-up after missing the Eastlands defeat.

However, the injured Samir Nasri, Abou Diaby, Kolo Toure, Theo Walcott, Emmanuel Eboue, Tomas Rosicky, Bacary Sagna, Emmanuel Adebayor and Eduardo all missed out.

In Kyiv two months ago, Gallas had grabbed a late goal as the Gunners hit back to draw 1-1 against a Dynamo side that is currently three points clear at the top of the Ukrainian league table.

And the controversial Frenchman was again in the thick of the action as he single-handedly tried to add some spice to an otherwise mundane game.

After an incident-free opening 39 minutes Gallas' awful week almost hit a new low when his casual back-pass was picked up by Ismael Bangoura, who fired a shot from a tight angle against the outside of a post.

On the stroke of half-time, Gallas had the ball in the net only to correctly be ruled offside and three minutes after the interval he contrived to block Robin van Persie's goalbound shot on the Kyiv line.

The visitors looked the more likely winners in the second half and, with 13 minutes left, Artem Milevski found himself completely free inside the area but Manuel Almunia did superbly to block the Ukrainian striker's shot.

Play quickly switched to the other end and a clever pass by Fabregas allowed van Persie to fire the ball along the six-yard box, but Bendtner was unable to get a touch to it with the goal gaping.

There was still time for the Denmark international to snatch the winner though and Kyiv ended the match with ten men when Alexander Aliev was sent off in the last minute after appearing to push the referee.

Stalemate sends United through

Manchester United eased through to the knockout stages of the Champions League by securing a goalless draw away to Spanish side Villarreal.

Tomasz Kuszczak was handed a rare start in goal for United, while Cristiano Ronaldo shook off a knock to feature for Sir Alex Ferguson's side.

The opening minutes of the game saw little in the way of goalmouth action, although Wayne Rooney did have the ball in the net, but an offside flag cut any celebrations off before they had started.

Seventeen minutes in Villarreal knocked the ball around well and the attack ended with Santi Cazorla testing Kuszczak with a stinging drive from 25 yards out.

United took until ten minutes to go to half-time before they forged a meaningful opening, with Ronaldo teeing up Darren Fletcher, but his shot from the edge of the area was straight into the gloves of Diego Lopez.

Four minutes before the break Rooney laid the ball back into the path of the arriving Ronaldo and his deflected drive from 30 yards was tipped superbly onto the crossbar by the alert Lopez.

Ronaldo's low 25-yard free-kick then forced a save from Lopez as United ended the first half in the ascendancy.

Early in the second period Ronaldo broke away down the right and fired in a crisp, low shot which Lopez parried. Rooney arrived and fell on the floor looking for a penalty and was lucky to escape a caution.

That was the only clear opening for much of a disappointing second half, but United finally came close to breaking the deadlock ten minutes from time.

Rooney got clear down the left and his deflected cross was about to drop in under the crossbar before Joan Capdevila made a superb headed clearance.

However, Spain left-back Capdevila blotted his copybook soon after when he was shown a somewhat harsh red card for a late lunge on Ronaldo.

The closing minutes were surprisingly quiet as neither side seemed to have the necessary intent to find a winner, but both teams celebrated a place in the last 16 when the final whistle sounded.

Gallas dropped and stripped of captaincy

France Football claim that the outspoken defender has paid the price for his verbal attack on his Arsenal team-mates and will not appear in Saturday's trip to Manchester City and will be forced to relinquish the armband to either Gael Clichy or Manuel Almunia.

While the reports have not been confirmed by the Gunners it would not come as a surprise if Arsene Wenger had run out of patience with the 31-year-old after a series of incidents have brought Gallas' leadership qualities into question.

On Thursday Gallas said the Arsenal side was ''not brave enough in battle'' and claimed the squad was being undermined by the attitude and actions of one unruly player.

The central defender followed that on Friday with a fierce critique of his international team-mates in his autobiography. Gallas reports unrest in the France camp during their disastrous Euro 2008 finals, singling out a player who he felt was disrespecting older members of the squad. It led to a training-ground confrontation between the pair.

''I was also 20 years old once. I would never have allowed myself to speak in this tone to a footballer who was older than me,'' Gallas wrote. ''The youngsters from the Euros seem cheeky, very sure of themselves. They think they know it all, but they don't know anything.

In October Gallas reacted angrily when Arsenal surrendered a 4-2 lead with just two minutes remaining in the north London derby and drew the game 4-4.

His histrionics were reminiscent of his behaviour at the end of last season's away game at Birmingham City when striker Eduardo broke his leg and the Gunners squandered the three points after conceding a late penalty to draw 2-2.

Former England manager Graham Taylor believes Wenger would be wrong to retain Gallas as his captain after his verbal attack.

''I would have thought by now a manager of Arsene Wenger's calibre knows what makes a good captain, and I'm somewhat surprised that he still has stuck with Gallas even after that Birmingham situation,'' said Taylor.

Meanwhile former Arsenal stalwart Nigerl Winterburn believes Wenger faces a difficult decision over Gallas' future.

''Wenger is very loyal, he protects his players because he believes in them. 'It's a difficult decision. If he takes the captaincy away he's almost saying he doesn't trust him as a player and then maybe he shouldn't be playing within the team.

''Behind closed doors he'll be very, very disappointed. Whether he'll let us know that is a different matter.''

Messi and Keita stretch Barca lead

Barcelona opened a three-point lead at the top of the Primera Liga on Sunday after goals from Lionel Messi and Seydou Keita gave them a 2-0 win at struggling Recreativo Huelva.

Spain midfielder Xavi fooled the Recreativo defence by playing a short ball to Messi from a freekick and the Argentine smashed the ball into the roof of the net for his seventh league goal of the season.

Thierry Henry shot against the bar and a post before Keita sealed the win near the end with a simple tap-in from Samuel Eto'o's mishit shot.

Earlier, Villarreal twice surrendered the lead to draw 2-2 at Malaga, Diego Forlan scored two second-half goals as Atletico Madrid thumped visiting Deportivo Coruna 4-1 and Sevilla won 2-0 at Getafe.

Sunday's victory extends Barcelona's winning streak in the league to nine and the Catalans have 28 points from 11 matches ahead of unbeaten Villarreal on 25.

Real Madrid and Valencia both missed opportunities to take provisional top spot on Saturday.

Fourth-placed Real's poor run of form continued when they lost 1-0 at Real Valladolid and Valencia were beaten 3-2 at home by Sporting Gijon and are in third.

Real, Valencia and Sevilla all have 23 points, with the Andalusians in fifth on goal difference, and Atletico are one place behind Sevilla on 17.

Last-placed Osasuna are still without a win after they lost 2-0 at fellow strugglers Athletic Bilbao thanks to goals from Joseba Garmendia and Fernando Llorente.

The defeat for the Pamplona club leaves them stuck on five points and increases the pressure on coach Jose Antonio Camacho, while Athletic move up to 18th with nine points, two ahead of Recreativo in 19th on seven.

Messi said it had been a struggle to overcome Recreativo's stubborn resistance.

"The whole squad is responsible for the win and I am very happy," Messi said in a pitch-side television interview.

LATE EQUALISER

In Malaga earlier, former Manchester United striker Giuseppe Rossi opened the scoring for Villarreal in the seventh minute when he fired a powerful low shot from the edge of the area that squirmed under keeper Francesc Arnau.

Portuguese midfielder Duda equalised with a superb long-range freekick with just under half an hour gone and Robert Pires put Joseba Llorente through shortly after halftime, the striker's shot flashing between Arnau's legs.

Helder Rosario snatched a late equaliser with a glanced header from a corner.

Deportivo's defenders were at fault for John Heitinga's opener for Atletico at the Vicente Calderon when they failed to cut out Simao Sabrosa's corner and allowed the Dutchman to chest the ball into the net.

Uruguay striker Forlan galloped through to score the home side's second through the legs of Depor keeper Daniel Aranzubia just after halftime and captain Maxi Rodriguez grabbed a third with just over 20 minutes left.

Forlan got his second with a smart finish in the 81st minute and Filipe scored Depor's consolation just before the end.

Lucky penalty helps Milan close gap

Kaka scored a contested penalty to help AC Milan cut the gap on Serie A leaders Inter Milan to a point with a 1-0 home win over lowly Chievo on Sunday.

The Brazilian playmaker netted after appearing to be tripped just outside the box by Simone Bentivoglio on 15 minutes.

Napoli also scored thanks to a dubious spotkick but failed to join Milan on 26 points after two late goals gave Atalanta a 3-1 home win in an incident-packed match in Bergamo.

Champions Inter won 2-0 at Palermo on Saturday thanks to Zlatan Ibrahimovic's superb double while Juventus, now third on 24 points from 12 games, beat Genoa 4-1 on Thursday.

Fifth-placed Lazio missed the chance to move above Juve when they lost 1-0 to struggling AS Roma in a lively Rome derby.

Julio Baptista headed home Francesco Totti's cross on 50 minutes to give Roma only their third league win this term and put last season's runners-up three clear of the drop zone with a game in hand.

Lazio had several opportunities during the late match and were close to equalising despite having Cristian Ledesma dismissed for two yellows 20 minutes into the second half. Roma's Simone Perrotta also received a second booking late on.

EXCELLENT DISPLAY

Milan drew 1-1 at Lecce last weekend after conceding in stoppage time and they risked a similar outcome at the San Siro by failing to find a second goal to kill off a plucky Chievo.

Carlo Ancelotti's side just about edged the game with Alexandre Pato and Marek Jankulovski going close to doubling their lead late on.

"It was a foul, but only the video replay can establish if it was in our out, while the human eye cannot," Ancelotti told reporters when asked about Kaka's penalty.

"On the pitch we always suffer, maybe we defended a bit too deep."

Chievo's defeat in Domenico Di Carlo's second game in charge sent them to the bottom after struggling Reggina produced an excellent display to win 1-0 at sixth-placed Udinese.

Franco Brienza volleyed in a ball which dropped quickly over his head to seal a deserved victory over an off-colour Udinese, who badly missed top striker Antonio Di Natale.

Fiorentina also lost ground with the leading pack after another debatable penalty handed Cagliari a 1-0 home win over Cesare Prandelli's side.