Lazio save Italian honour as Real boost Spanish contingent to three

In Group C an early goal from Raul saw seven-Times European champions Real Madrid win 1-0 at Norway’s Rosenborg to join pool winners Bayern Munich as qualifiers from that group and accompany fellow Spanish sides Barcelona and Valencia into the last eight. That result condemned Ukraine’s Dynamo Kyiv, who pulled off what proved a pyrrhic 2-0 victory against the German side with goals from Kaha Kaladze and George Demetradze.

Lazio’s comeback ensured Italy, long considered to have the best domestic league in Europe, are represented in the last eight of European club football’s premier tournament with not a single Serie A side getting that far in the continent’s other competition, the UEFA Cup.

Chelsea did not field a single Englishman in their starting line-up and the absence of one of those Englishmen Dennis Wise was crucial.

The Roman side had to hang on with 10 men as Portuguese player Fernando Couto was red carded with seven minutes remaining and the London side’s Romanian Dan Petrescu hit a post. Mihajlovic, widely regarded as the best freekick taker in the world, scored the all-important winner with his favoured left foot. Minutes earlier Inzaghi had scrambled an equaliser under pressure from Marcel Desailly after a centre from Pavel Nedved. Yugoslav Mihajlovic therefore atoned for the slight deflection that had helped Poyet’s shot into his own goal.

Included in Chelsea’s line-up were three World Cup winning Frenchmen. Two of those Desailly and Didier Deschamps are bidding to become the first men to win the European Cup with three different teams. Both men, friends since their days together in the Nantes Youth team, won with Marseille in 1993 and Deschamps has since triumphed with Juventus and Desailly with AC Milan. The third member of the 1998 World Cup winning side Frank Leboeuf will miss the quarter-final first leg through suspension.

In France Feyenoord’s Danish striker Jon Dahl Tomasson had a first-half goal harshly disallowed for dangerous play after netting with an overhead kick. Marseille’s Richard Martini was dismissed after 75 minutes but the Rotterdam outfit still did not manage to break through at a Stade Velodrome devoid of atmosphere with few fans turning up to support a team whose only remaining interest this season is a battle against relegation.

Marseille had been angered by comments from the Lazio camp before the match that they might take it easy against Feyenoord. The French club have been sensitive about their reputation since the match-fixing scandal involving their former President Bernard Tapie which tarnished their 1993 triumph, the only win for a French club in Europe’s top competition.

Real stayed on course for an eighth European crown by beating Norway’s Rosenborg with a third-minute goal from Raul. Played in by Fernando Hierro, Raul sprinted clear of the Trondheim outfit’s Defence, scoring with an angled shot with his favoured Left foot. Raul refused to take the plaudits, saying: "I must take my hat off to the whole team. In the quarter-finals it does not matter who we meet… Manchester (United), Lazio or Barcelona."

Chelsea coach vialli admitted that the prospect of facing United, Bayern or Barcelona in the last eight was an awesome one. "Choosing between those three is like choosing to fight Mike Tyson, Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) or George Foreman," said Vialli, a team-mate of Deschamps in that victorious Juventus team in 1996. (AFP)

Eight qualifiers for Champions League quarter-final draw to be made on Friday:

Pot A (winners of respective groups A-D): Barcelona (Spa), Manchester United (Eng), Bayern Munich (Ger), Lazio (Ita)

Pot B (runners-up in groups A-D): Porto (Por), Valencia (Spa), Real Madrid (Spa), Chelsea (Eng)

Runners-up cannot be drawn to play winners of their respective groups.

Collated results of European Champions League second-phase matches on Wednesday night:

Group C: In Trondheim Rosenborg (Nor) 0 Real Madrid (Spa) 1 (Raul 3rd); In Kiev Dynamo Kyiv (Ukr) 2 (Kaladze 34, Demetradze 72) Bayern Munich (Ger) 0

Group D: In Marseille marseille (Fra) 0 Feyenoord (Ned) 0; In London Chelsea (Eng) 1 (Poyet 44) Lazio (Ita) 2 (Inzaghi 54, Mihajlovic 66)