The chinks in Inter Milan's [ Images ] armour were exposed again as Tottenham Hotspur [ Images ] beat the holders 3-1 in Champions League [ Images ] Group A and all three teams able to secure last-16 qualification flopped on Tuesday.

Like Inter, 2009 winners Barcelona [ Images ] only needed a win to go through with two games to spare but drew 1-1 at FC Copenhagen in Group D while Olympique Lyon's [ Images ] three-match winning streak came to a halt in an enthralling 4-3 defeat at Benfica [ Images ] in Group B.

Manchester United [ Images ] were the only group leaders who could not guarantee qualification this week but they took a big leap towards the first knockout round thanks to goals by Darren Fletcher [ Images ], Gabriel Obertan and Bebe in a 3-0 win at Bursaspor.

Valencia prevailed 3-0 against Rangers to leapfrog their opponents into second in Group C.

Rafael van der Vaart, suspended when Inter beat Spurs 4-3 two weeks ago, sent White Hart Lane mad in the return with a first-half goal after good work by Luca Modric but the Dutchman was substituted at the break with a nagging injury.

Peter Crouch made sure it was an unhappy return to England [ Images ] for his former Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez when he slid in for the second on 61 minutes after Gareth Bale, hat-trick hero at the San Siro, again showed stunning speed to whip in the cross.

Red-hot Samuel Eto'o bagged his seventh goal of the group stage but Roman Pavlyuchenko converted another Bale pass a minute from time as Tottenham went top on head-to-head record.

In the other group game, Dutch champions Twente Enschede boosted their slight hopes of progressing with a 2-0 win at Werder Bremen [ Images ].

Barca's Lionel Messi [ Images ] cast his magic spell on the Champions League yet again with a well-taken opener on the half hour but a flap by Victor Valdes [ Images ] allowed Claudemir to level for Copenhagen just a minute later. Rubin Kazan and Panathinaikos drew 0-0.

Lyon were blown away by Benfica's verve and Fabio Coentrao's brace before a spirited fightback from 4-0 down almost levelled matters but second-placed Schalke 04 could not take full advantage with a 0-0 stalemate at Hapoel Tel Aviv.

The other four groups play on Wednesday.