Another day at the office

Lionel Messi scored twice to tie Raul Gonzalez’s career record of 71 Champions League goals, and Barcelona won 2-0 at Ajax on Wednesday night to advance to the tournament’s knockout stage for the 11th straight year.

The 27-year-old scored with a header in the 36th minute and doubled the lead in the 76th after exchanging passes with Pedro Rodriguez. Messi moved one goal in front of Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo.

Messi has played 90 Champions League matches, 52 fewer than Raul.

“Messi is absolutely the best player I have ever seen as player or coach,” Barcelona coach Luis Enrique said.

Barcelona (3-1) advanced from Group F along with Paris Saint-Germain (3-0-1), which beat APOEL 1-0 on Edinson Cavani’s goal 57 seconds in. Ajax is 0-2-2 and APOEL 0-3-1.

Manchester City (0-2-2) finished two players short and lost 2-1 at home to CSKA Moscow (1-2-1). Seydou Doumbia scored in the second and 34th minutes around an eighth-minute goal from Yaya Toure in the Group E match.

Fernandinho was ejected in the 70th and Toure in the 82nd by Greek referee Tasos Sidiropoulos, both for their second yellow cards.

“It’s very difficult to understand why we played so badly,” City manager Manuel Pellegrini said. “From the beginning, we were so nervous and we gave them the two goals. Really, we didn’t play. The first half especially, we didn’t see the team we normally see. We didn’t shoot once at their goal. We just had Yaya’s free kick, and we gave away two easy goals.”

Bayern Munich (4-0) reached the final 16 for the seventh straight year, winning 2-0 at home against Roma (1-2-1) in the other Group E match on goals by Franck Ribery in the 38th and Mario Goetze in the 64th.

In Group G, Jasmin Handanovic saved Eden Hazard’s 85th-minute penalty kick, preserving a 1-1 tie for Maribor (0-1-3) against visiting Chelsea (2-0-2). Agim Ibraimi put the host ahead with a curled shot in the 50th, and Nemanja Matic tied the score in the 73rd for the Blues, who are unbeaten in 16 games in all competitions this season.

“Only when Maribor scored did the players realize the game was in danger,” Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho said. “After that, a fantastic reaction. We deserved to win, clearly.”

Sporting Lisbon (1-2-1) rallied for a 4-2 win over Schalke (1-1-2) on goals by Naby Sarr in the 26th, Jefferson (52nd), Nani (72nd) and Islam Slimani (first minute of injury time). Slimani’s own goal put the visitors ahead in the 17th, and Dennis Aogo scored in the 88th for Schalke.

Porto (3-0-1) advanced from Group H by winning 2-0 at Athletic Bilbao (0-3-1) on goals by Jackson Martinez in the 56th and Yacine Brahimi in the 73rd.

Luiz Adriano scored a hat trick to help Shakhtar Donetsk (2-0-2) to a 5-0 rout of BATE Borisov (1-3).

After goals by Darijo Srna in the 19th and Alex Teixeira in the 48th, Luiz Adriano converted a penalty kick in the 58th and added goals in the 83rd and the third minute of stoppage time. (AP)