LONDON: Barcelona, Inter Milan, Stuttgart and Olympiakos advanced in the Champions League to complete the lineup for the next round on Wednesday.

Defending champions Barcelona needed an 86th-minute free kick by Lionel Messi to win 2-1 at Dynamo Kiev and edge Inter to first place in Group F. Inter beat Russia’s Rubin Kazan 2-0 to advance, while Stuttgart took second place in Group G with a 3-1 win over Unirea Urziceni. Olympiakos beat already qualified Arsenal 1-0 to finish second in Group H.

Barcelona needed only to avoid a large defeat to advance and that looked possible when Artem Milevskiy hit an early goal for Dynamo, but Xavi Hernandez equalised in the 33rd after sustained pressure and European player of the year Messi made sure Barcelona qualified in first place ahead of Inter with his curling free kick.

Samuel Eto’o and Mario Balotelli gave Inter Milan a 2-0 win over Rubin Kazan. Eto’o opened the scoring in the 30th after being set up by an exchange between Javier Zanetti and Balotelli, before the latter scored a long-range free kick in the 63rd. Inter finished second in Group F with nine points, two fewer than Barcelona, leaving Rubin Kazan to drop into the Europa League as the third-place finisher.

Stuttgart secured second place to Sevilla in Group G with victory in their first game under new coach Christian Gross. Ciprian Marica, Christian Traesch and Pavel Pogrebnyak scored inside the first 11 minutes to stun the Romanian team, which went into the match with a two-point lead over Stuttgart in Group G. Antonio Semedo pulled one back for Unirea in the 46th. Sevilla had already qualified before beating Rangers 1-0.

Olympiakos advanced to the knockout stage through Leonardo’s second-half goal against Arsenal, who lost their unbeaten record but still topped Group H. Standard Liege qualified for the Europa League in dramatic circumstances when goalkeeper Sinan Bolat scored an injury-time header to earn a 1-1 draw with AZ Alkmaar. With Standard’s European campaign seconds from ending, Bolat sprinted forward for a last-second free kick and headed powerfully past Sergio Romero. AZ had held the lead for more than 50 minutes after Jeremain Lens scored in the 42nd. The Dutch side finished last.

In the other group, Alberto Gilardino scored in injury time to give Fiorentina a 2-1 win at Liverpool and first place in their Champions League group. Five-time European champion Liverpool was already eliminated ahead of their final group match but led in the 43rd minute through Yossi Benayoun. Martin Jorgensen equalised for already qualified Fiorentina 20 minutes later and Gilardino secured his team’s fifth straight tournament win.

Fiorentina topped Group E ahead of Lyon, while Liverpool finished third and will play in the Europa League. Lyon scored two goals in each half to rout Debrecen 4-0.

Real Madrid, AC Milan and Bayern Munich, European champions a total 20 times between them, advanced alongside CSKA Moscow on Tuesday. Manchester United, Bordeaux, Chelsea and FC Porto are the other teams in the draw for the next round, which will take place in Nyon, Switzerland, on December 18. The draw for the round of 32 in the Europa League will take place the same day.