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Panathinaikos beat Anorthosis Famagusta 1-0 to qualify top of Champions League Group B, as Internazionale went down 2-1 at Werder Bremen.

Panathinaikos won thanks to a 69th-minute goal from Giorgios Karagounis and head into the next stage, while Anorthosis' defensive mix-up sees them drop out of Europe.

The winners of the match were guaranteed to progress, so it was not surprising that play began at a frenetic pace, Alexandros Tziolis forcing an excellent early save from Anorthosis keeper Arjan Beqaj.

After six minutes Karagounis fired in a stunning free-kick that was dipping under the bar until Beqaj tipped it over.

With the Cypriots needing something from the game, it was only a matter of time before they forced their way into the match.

A spell of good build-up play led to Vincent Laban crossing for the waiting Hawar Taher after 14 minutes, but the ball came in a little too quick for the winger and he spooned it over the bar.

Anorthosis time and again tested the Panathinaikos defence, with Andreas Constantinou unlucky with a drive after 19 minutes. However they never got closer than their early chance.

Pana were left to play on the counter-attack, and knowing that a draw would be enough for them they seemed content to do so.

The tactic worked well. After 36 minutes Karagounis had a chance from 10 yards but he pulled the ball five yards wide.

The sides were goalless at the interval and, with defences looking rock solid, there seemed little chance of the deadlock being broken.

Yet from the restart it was always the hosts who looked more likely to make the breakthrough. Alexandre Cleyton forced a good save from Anorthosis replacement keeper Zoltan Nagy, and constant pressure thereafter looked set to pay.

The breakthrough came in the 69th minute and followed a pair of defensive errors. Cedric Bardon unaccountably passed the ball weakly to Giannis Skopeletis, allowing Karagounis to step in and get a shot away.

His effort was poor, straight at the keeper, but somehow Nagy failed to keep hold of the ball. It dribbled painfully across the line, sending the home fans wild.

From there on in the hosts threw up the shutters, keeping 10 men behind the ball and playing only on the counter.

As news filtered through of the goal in Germany which put the Greeks ahead of Inter in Group B, the crowd began to celebrate and their men held on for a well-earned victory.

Werder Bremen 2-1 Internazionale

A superb all-round display from Werder Bremen gave them a deserved victory over Jose Mourinho's Internazionale.

The result secured the German side a spot in the UEFA Cup while the Italians progress to the knock-out stages of the Champions League as Group B runners up.

Second-half goals from Claudio Pizarro and Markus Rosenberg gave the hosts a comfortable lead, with Zlatan Ibrahimovic's late consolation effort only coming after the result was beyond doubt.

With Inter already safely through to the next phase, the first half got off to a relatively slow start with the Italians slowing the game down from the opening kick.

Bremen had other ideas, however. Knowing they needed a result to have any chance of pinching the UEFA Cup spot from Anorthosis, they looked keen to move things on but soon became frustrated by Inter's skill.

It did not take long before that frustration started showing in the tackles that began to fly in, with Nicolas Burdisso, Marco Materazzi and Ricardo Quaresma all sent flying within the first 20 minutes.

It took the third of the big tackles - an outrageous hack on Quaresma - to earn the referee's ire, with Torsten Frings earning a yellow for his eye-catching swing of the leg.

But the warning only seemed to help the German side, and they dominated the latter part of the opening half with a brand of fast, one-touch football that almost opened up Inter several times.

The best of those chances should have fallen to Aaron Hunt , but after a nice build-up down the right after 37 minutes Rosenberg's final ball was pulled too far back, and all the young German could do was clip it with his trailing heel.

With Bremen dominating proceedings, Inter's efforts were restricted to counter-attacks. But it was one of these that led to the best chance of the half after 20 minutes.

A long ball upfield released Brazilian striker Adriano, and had the ball bounced better for him he would have been odds-on favourite to slot home the first goal of the match.

The bounce deceived him though, with the ball sitting up oddly and the resulting toe-poke flying harmlessly into the air.

Inter coach Jose Mourinho did not look happy after the interval but his lot seemed to improve when a 55th-minute corner found Burdisso, whose fantastic header flew clear past Tim Wiese in the Bremen goal only to be cleared off the line by Clemens Fritz.

It was the culmination of a good spell of pressure for the Serie A side, who had clearly been on the wrong end of Mourinho's temper at the break.

But Bremen's next move turned the game on its head. A counter on 62 minutes up the left flank culminated in a powerful strike from outside the box by Mesut Ozil. Lluckily for the hosts Pizarro was on hand to thump home the opening goal.

With the home fans going wild, Bremen found belief: they took hold of the match and began to squeeze the life out of Inter, while the visitors' shoulders slumped.

Bremen nearly scored again on 75 minutes with Pizarro's effort through Javier Zanetti's legs forcing a good save from the excellent Julio Cesar in the Inter goal.

Six minutes later the seemingly inevitable happened as a beautiful move down the left ended with Ozil pulling back a perfect cross along the ground to an unmarked Rosenberg. He made no mistake in blasting home.

With news of Anorthosis trailing in Greece the party began as the crowd realised that victory would secure the UEFA Cup spot for the hosts.

The pace of the match slowed noticeably as the Bremen players relaxed and enjoyed the atmosphere, frustrating a subdued Inter team into a few rash tackles.

The Italians' consolation goal came out of nothing on 88 minutes, Ibrahimovic's long-range effort rocketing into the bottom corner.

But it was an irrelevance. Bremen enjoyed their moment of glory and the unexpected reprieve of their European campaign, while Inter allowed their early dominance of Group B to disintegrate into a qualification that will put them in the path of the tournament's bigger clubs.

Toby Keel / Eurosport