Holders Bayern Munich and English side Manchester City became the first teams to qualify for the knockout stages of the Champions League.
Bayern made heavy weather of beating Viktoria Pilsen 1-0 yesterday, while group rivals City reached the knockout stages for the first time, after flopping in the group stage the last two seasons, with a 5-2 thumping of CSKA Moscow in Manchester.
Bayern coach Pep Guardiola, whose side equalled the Champions League record of nine successive wins set by Barcelona back in the 2002/03 season, was satisfied despite the unconvincing display exemplified by yet another poor first-half performance.
"We have taken all the points we could in the four games, which shows how strong we are," said Guardiola.
City got the better of CSKA with a Sergio Aguero double and a hat-trick from Alvaro Negredo, with manager Manuel Pellegrini saying: "It is the first step, but it's an important one as the team has not qualified before. We have done that now."
Real Madrid came close to joining them but having gone 2-1 up in Turin against Juventus they were pegged back to 2-2 with a goal by former Athletic Bilbao striker Fernando Llorente the Italian club's saviour.
Cristiano Ronaldo's opener for Real, Gareth Bale got their other, took him level for the all time total of goals scored in the group phase with eight.
The result leaves Real needing a result at home to Galatasaray, who lost 1-0 away at FC Copenhagen, later this month to assure themselves of a place in the Last 16.
"Take our foot off the gas at the Bernabeu against Galatasaray? No, the only way forward is to keep up the pressure and win," said Real boss Carlo Ancelotti.
For his Juventus counterpart Antonio Conte there was much to be pleased with even if his side are bottom of the table, a point off both Galatasaray and Copenhagen.
