Gradually, then suddenly. That was the theme of the night as slow burners sparked into life with clusters of goals across the board. In an early kick-off, there were four goals in ten minutes either side of half-time as Lille beat Sturm Graz 3-2, while a scoreless first half between Borussia Dortmund and Barcelona served up five goals after the break as a Ferran Torres double sealed the win for Hansi Flick’s side. Advertisement Feyenoord served up some special long-range goals in their 4-2 win over Sparta Prague and Stuttgart ended an eight-game run without a home win in Europe by scoring five goals against Young Boys — more than they managed in that winless run combined. Arsenal took a major step to automatic qualification with a 3-0 home win over Monaco and Tammy Abraham scored a late winner for Milan against Belgrade’s Crvena Zvezda, but there was more misery for Pep Guardiola... City lose again, facing play-off headache Guardiola has been scratching his head a lot lately . Another disappointing evening in Turin will have seen him dig those nails in even further. Not only did his Manchester City side meekly succumb to a 2-0 defeat to Juventus , it means they have just one win in their last ten games in all competitions and are in danger of failing to make the knockouts. Since being eliminated in the last 16 in his first season, City have reached at least the quarter-final stage in each of the last seven seasons. GO DEEPER The Briefing: Juventus 2 Man City 0 - Playoffs for Guardiola? Unlucky Ederson? De Bruyne lone bright spark They are five points off Lille, who occupy the eighth and final automatic qualifying spot. They face a pivotal clash with Paris Saint-Germain in January, who are also fighting for survival as they languish in 25th, outside the play-off spots. It is shaping up to be a do-or-die penultimate tie but, even if both make it through, they look most likely to do so via the play-off route as part of the cohort from ninth to 24th. Those teams must come through a two-legged play-off in February to make the last 16. It would be a headache for big elite clubs competing on multiple fronts as they have become used to fairly calm four-team group stages in which they have qualification sewn up with a game or two to spare. An additional two games would mean even more strain on Guardiola’s squad, who are already missing Rodri — a player who was vocal about the calendar being too much before he suffered an ACL injury. GO DEEPER Rodri is a symptom of a sport at breaking point - and we're all to blame It has been difficult to get a handle on the jeopardy of the new 32-team league format. The lists of fixtures looked more appealing at the start but in recent matchdays, it was difficult to know what constituted a good or bad result with so much football still to be played. With just two games to go, however, the table has taken some shape and nearly all teams are still fighting to qualify for the play-offs or qualify for the automatic places. It has certainly shaken things up. A good night for the USMNT It did not look like a day to work from home and set the Champions League alarm for American fans hoping to see their compatriots make a dent in Europe’s premier competition. PSV’s Malik Tillman is in the top tier for chance creation in the Champions League but he and Ricardo Pepi suffered a disappointing defeat to Brest on Tuesday. With Milan’s Christian Pulisic ruled out for the rest of the month with a calf injury and Monaco’s Folarin Balogun undergoing shoulder surgery, the flag was at half mast for the USMNT on matchday six. GO DEEPER USMNT milestone: Weston McKennie and Tim Weah combine for special Juventus strike But things changed when Gio Reyna was given a surprise start for Borussia Dortmund at home to Barcelona. The 22-year-old has been injured for the majority of the season, playing 63 minutes across all competitions, but he managed 73 minutes in the 3-2 defeat to Barcelona and will hope this is the start of a prolonged period of availability. Advertisement At Juventus, Weston McKennie and Timothy Weah both started on the bench but their nights coalesced in a massive 2-0 win over City. Weah was set free down the right flank on the counter-attack and, after seeing his first cross blocked, he showed composure to wait for McKennie to burst into the penalty area from deep. His cross was slightly behind the midfielder but McKennie showed great athleticism to acrobatically volley the ball home to seal the win for Juventus. Earlier this week in an interview with The Athletic, Pulisic had spoken about how he believed the crop of players in Europe had helped change the perception of USMNT players. “I think it’s in a better place now,” he said. “I hope I’ve had a say in that and other people look around and say, ‘This guy’s American and he is doing it at the highest level, so we need to respect some of these guys’. Look how many Americans in the last five to 10 years have come over to Europe. We have players in the Champions League and some of the highest leagues in the world. It is not our biggest driver of wanting to prove them wrong. It’s just something that is out there.” Tonight’s cameos will have helped push the boulder up the hill that little bit more. Lewis-Skelly & Duranville take their chance Lamine Yamal being just 17 has forced the football world to reconsider what qualifies as young, but two 18-year-olds made their first starts in the competition — and they both showed why it will be the first of many for both. Myles Lewis-Skelly came through the ranks at Arsenal as a midfielder but he has been remoulded by Mikel Arteta as a left-back who can invert into midfield. GO DEEPER The Briefing: Arsenal 3 Monaco 0 - Lewis-Skelly's starring role, Saka at the double, wasteful Jesus In the 35th minute against Monaco, he showed why he is perfect for that role as he was the catalyst for the opening goal in Arsenal’s 3-0 home win. Martin Odegaard played a square pass and Lewis-Skelly baited the defender towards him before showing sharp footwork to feign and step inside. He then slid the ball through to Gabriel Jesus , who teed up Bukayo Saka for a tap-in at the back post. For UK viewers: Bukayo Saka with an easy finish following a brilliant Gabriel Jesus pass 😮💨 Some incredible play from Myles Lewis-Skelly on his first Champions League start 👏 📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/GJHS03AXiD — Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) December 11, 2024 For US viewers: Arsenal score their first goal from open play in 268 minutes 🚨 Myles Lewis-Skelly in the build up though 🔥 pic.twitter.com/vLGRwlCMNw — CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) December 11, 2024 The entire team ran to Lewis-Skelly — the youngest player to start for Arsenal in the Champions League since Alex-Oxlade Chamberlain in 2011 — as recognition of his part in the goal. “I just told him that this is his level and he should have no doubts,” said Saka after the game. Another 18-year-old who showed no sign of stage fright was Dortmund’s Julien Duranville. A left-footed winger who plays on the right, his direct dribbling caused Alejandro Balde problems in the first half. Having missed the majority of last season through a thigh injury, Duranville has not been able to showcase his talents since signing from Anderlecht in January 2023. He has only appeared in the Bundesliga twice this season, both off the bench, but in his 73 minutes against Barcelona, he displayed flashes of his incredible agility when running at full speed. It is 20-year-old England prospect Jamie Gittens who has been getting all the attention on the other wing so far this season. As is so often the case with the Dortmund pipeline, it may not be long before Duranville is the name hogging the headlines. GO DEEPER How Dortmund's 'golden boy' Jamie Gittens is becoming one of Europe's most destructive players Raphinha ’s remarkable turnaround Raphinha did not score in any of his first ten Champions League games for Barcelona. After netting against Dortmund, the Brazilian forward has nine in his last eight appearances in the competition. The last Barcelona player to score eight Champions League goals in a single year was... Lionel Messi in 2019. It underlines the remarkable turnaround in fortunes he has experienced since joining from Leeds in 2022. A player who showed glimpses of his talent but struggled to find a role within the system is fast becoming a numbers machine. He has more goal contributions than any other player in the competition after six games (six goals and two assists) and has joined a select group of five players with 25 goal involvements across Europe’s top five leagues and UEFA competitions this season. Raphinha’s 28 goals and assists have come in just 27 games and have included a hat-trick against Bayern Munich , a goal and an assist away to Real Madrid and another at Dortmund. Wednesday’s results What’s next? The fixtures for matchweek seven of the eight-round league phase take place in January (kick-offs 8pm BST/3pm ET unless stated). 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The Onion's rejected purchase of Infowars in an auction bid supported by families of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting dealt them a new setback Wednesday and clouded the future of Alex Jones' conspiracy theory platform, which is now poised to remain in his control for at least the near future. What's next for Infowars and Sandy Hook families' long-sought efforts to hold Jones accountable over calling one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history a hoax was unclear, after a federal judge in Houston late Tuesday rejected The Onion's winning bid for the site . U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez in Houston said he did not want another auction but offered no roadmap over how to proceed. One possibility includes ultimately allowing Sandy Hook families — who comprise most of Jones' creditors — to return to state courts in Connecticut and Texas to collect on the nearly $1.5 billion in defamation and emotional distress lawsuit judgments that Jones was ordered to pay them. “Our hope is that when this process ends, and it will end, and it will end sooner rather than later, is that all assets that Alex Jones has available are paid to the families, and that includes Infowars, and that as a result of that process Alex Jones is deprived of the ownership and control of the platform that he’s used to hurt so many people,” Christopher Mattei, an attorney for the Sandy Hook families, said in a phone interview Wednesday. The families, meanwhile, were preparing the mark the 12th anniversary of the Dec. 14 shooting. Why was The Onion bid rejected? The sale of Infowars is part of Jones’ personal bankruptcy case , which he filed in late 2022 after he was ordered to pay the $1.5 billion. Jones was sued for repeatedly saying on his show that the 2012 massacre of 20 first graders and six educators was staged by crisis actors to spur more gun control. Lopez said there was a lack of transparency in the bidding process and too much confusion about The Onion's bid. He also said the amount of money offered in the only two bids was too low and there needed to be more effort to try to raise as much money possible from the selling of Infowars' assets. The Onion's parent company, Global Tetrahedron, submitted a $1.75 million cash offer with plans to kick Jones out and relaunch Infowars in January as a parody . The bid also included a deal with many of the Sandy Hook families for them to forgo $750,000 of their auction proceeds and give it to other creditors. Lopez called it a complex arrangement that led to different interpretations of the bid's actual value as well as last-minute changes to a proposed sale order. The other bidder was First United American Companies, which runs a website in Jones’ name that sells nutritional supplements and planned to let Jones stay on the Infowars platforms. It offered $3.5 million in cash and later, with Jones, alleged fraud and collusion in the bidding process. Lopez rejected the allegations, saying that while mistakes were made there was no wrongdoing. Christopher Murray, the trustee who oversaw the auction, said he picked The Onion and its deal with the Sandy Hook families because it would have provided more money to Jones' other creditors. What happens next? The next steps remained unclear Wednesday. The judge directed Murray to come up with a new plan to move forward. Murray and representatives of The Onion did not immediately return messages seeking comment. The judge said there was a possibility there could be a trial in 2025 to settle Jones' bankruptcy. He said Murray could try to sell the equity in Infowars' parent company. He also said Murray could abandon the efforts, which could allow the Sandy Hook families to return to the state courts where they won their lawsuits against Jones and begin collection proceedings against him. The judge said he wanted to hear back from Murray and others involved in the bankruptcy within 30 days on a plan to move forward. Mattei, who represented the Sandy Hook families in the Connecticut lawsuit, said everyone is waiting to see what plan the trustee comes up with. Jones, meanwhile, continued to allege fraud and collusion on his show Wednesday and threatened legal action over what he called an attempted “rigged auction.” On the social media platform X, he called the judge's ruling a “Major Victory For Freedom Of The Press & Due Process." “I don’t want to have to go after these people, lawsuit-wise, but we have to because if you don’t then you’re aiding and abetting and they do it to other people. They made some big mistakes," he said. Sandy Hook families to mark shooting anniversary It's a solemn and heartbreaking week for relatives of victims of the Sandy Hook shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. The 12th anniversary is Saturday, and some of the victims' relatives were traveling to Washington, D.C., to attend the annual National Vigil for All Victims of Gun Violence on Wednesday evening. The families usually mark the anniversary out of the public eye. Many of the families said their lawsuits against Jones bought back the unbearable pain of losing their loved ones, as well as the trauma of being harassed and threatened by believers of Jones' hoax conspiracy. Relatives said they have been confronted in public by hoax believers and received death and rape threats. Robbie Parker, whose 6-year-old daughter Emilie was killed, testified at the Connecticut lawsuit trial in 2022 that the decade of abuse his family suffered made them move across the country to Washington state, and even there he was accosted in person. The families have not received any money from Jones since winning the trials. Jones has been appealing the $1.5 billion in judgments, and has since conceded that the shooting did happen. Last week, a Connecticut appeals court upheld most of the judgment in that state but reduced it by $150 million. ___ Associated Press writer Juan A. Lozano in Houston contributed to this report. Dave Collins, The Associated Press