Champions League

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AC Milan played out a goalless draw at Celtic after failing to capitalise on their dominance in Tuesday's Champions League first knockout round, first leg tie although they are now favourites to go through.

Alberto Gilardino had the best chance for the six-times European champions midway through the first half when he sprung the offside trap only for Celtic goalkeeper Artur Boruc to divert his effort past the post.

Italy striker Gilardino was then booked in the second half for a dive in the penalty area when it looked easier to score.

Midfielder Gennaro Gattuso, who used to play for Celtic's Glasgow rivals Rangers, also shot wide from a good position after a superb pass from Kaka as Milan came close in the second half.

"We had more chances in this match. We played a very good game and I am confident about the return leg," Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti told reporters.

SMART SAVE

Japanese midfielder Shunsuke Nakamura was Celtic's best player and nearly broke the deadlock before the break with a curling free kick but Milan keeper Zeljko Kalac made a smart save.

The big Australian was rarely troubled otherwise, although Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink had almost connected with another Nakamura free kick early on.

"I felt our will not to get beaten was 10 out of 10, but our technical level was five out of 10," Celtic manager Gordon Strachan said.

"We have to believe in ourselves a bit more, but that will come."

Milan captain Paolo Maldini became only the fifth player, and first Italian, to notch up 100 Champions League appearances but was booked early in the first half.

Celtic were European champions in 1967 but had never previously reached the latter stages of the Champions League.

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3 - 2 REAL MADRID- BAYERN M. 7Mar

1 - 0 PSV- ARSENAL 7Mar

0 - 1 LILLE- MANCHESTER U. 7Mar

0 - 0 CELTIC G.- MILAN 7Mar

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Holders Barcelona host 2005 winners Liverpool and Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho returns to former club Porto in two intriguing Champions League first knockout round, first leg ties on Wednesday.

Beleagured Italian football comes under the European spotlight in the other two clashes with Serie A leaders Inter Milan entertaining a rapidly-improving Valencia and five-times French champions Olympique Lyon visiting AS Roma.

Barcelona are not in the best shape going into the tricky Liverpool clash. They lost 2-1 at Valencia on Sunday and striker Samuel Eto'o has not been included in the squad having crossed swords with manager Frank Rijkaard last week.

Mourinho will relish the trip back to Porto, with whom he won the competition in 2004, but his English champions are still struggling with injuries and he will recall their 2-1 defeat at Porto in the group stage two seasons ago.

Inter have won their last 16 Serie A matches -- a record sequence in Europe's big four leagues of England, Germany, Spain and Italy -- but will miss injured midfielder Patrick Vieira.

Valencia, who are in great form, will hope Inter's lack of tough domestic competition leaves them susceptible in Europe.

Security will be tight at the San Siro with Italian soccer in the spotlight after the recent death of a policeman at a match. The same will be true at Rome's Olympic Stadium, where Roma are unbeaten in eight games against European opposition.

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Liverpool's Craig Bellamy and John-Arne Riise put a week of controversy behind them when they grabbed the goals that earned a memorable 2-1 comeback win at European champions Barcelona in the first knockout round.

It was Barca's first home defeat in Europe since April 2003 when they lost to Juventus in the quarter-finals of the Champions League and only their second loss in 20 matches in the competition in the last two seasons.

The only time they had previously lost at home to English opposition in Europe was against Liverpool in the 1976 UEFA Cup semi-finals.

Wales striker Bellamy, who faces an 80,000 pounds ($156,000) fine for an altercation with Riise in a pre-match training camp in Portugal, equalised two minutes before the break with a diving header in the first leg clash at the Nou Camp.

Norway defender Riise snatched the winner 16 minutes from time when he blasted a shot high into the net after dreadful defending by the home side.

"It was destiny," Riise told Sky television. "It's all over, it's behind us and we have to look to the future now."

Bellamy agreed, saying: "There is no problem between us. If there was a big problem then I wouldn't have been here, but there isn't one."

Neither team gave much away in the opening minutes, Barca looking more comfortable on the ball but resisting the temptation to throw too many men forward to test the Liverpool back four.

That all changed, however, in the 14th minute when Ronaldinho slipped a clever disguised pass out to fullback Gianluca Zambrotta just inside the Liverpool half.

The Italian charged down the right flank, clipped a great cross towards the unmarked Deco at the far post and he steered a header low past goalkeeper Pepe Reina to score Barca's first goal against Liverpool in four games at the Nou Camp.

SHARP KEEPING

Barca had Liverpool on the ropes for the next 10 minutes, but the Merseysiders managed to keep them at bay through a combination of sharp keeping by Reina and some off-target shooting from Javier Saviola and Thiago Motta.

Although Liverpool were forced to live off scraps of possession, they continued to look dangerous on the break.

Bellamy came within a whisker of snatching an equaliser when he headed into the side netting at the far post after a Steven Gerrard free kick.

But the Welshman had better luck four minutes later when he burst into the area to meet Steve Finnan's cross and send a diving header towards a surprised Valdes who ended up dragging the ball over his own line.

Bellamy, in the team despite reportedly hitting Riise with a golf club at the team's Algarve training camp according to the British media, cheekily celebrated by practising his swing.

Barca continued to have the lion's share of the ball in the second half, but found themselves frustrated time and again by Liverpool's muscular midfield and well-ordered back four.

Valdes made another gaffe when he picked up a Ludovic Giuly back pass midway through the second half but atoned for the error when he saved Gerrard's fierce drive.

Seven minutes later Riise stunned the Barca crowd when he blasted high into the net after Valdes had blocked a Dirk Kuyt shot as his defenders stood by and watched.

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1 - 2 BARCELONA- LIVERPOOL 6Mar

2 - 2 INTER- VALENCIA 6Mar

0 - 0 ROMA- O. LYON 6Mar

1 - 1 OPORTO- CHELSEA

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مرحله حذفی لیگ قهرمانان اروپا سه شنبه شب با برگزاری چهار دیدار آغاز شد.

در حساس ترین دیدارهای سه شنبه شب دو تیم بحران زده رئال مارید و بایرن مونیخ در ورزشگاه سانتیاگوبرنابو دیدار کردند. این دیدار بسیار توفانی آغاز شد تا جایی که رئال مادرید در دقیقه ۳۵ بازی با دو گل رائول و یک گل فان نیستلروی با نتیجه ۳ بر یک از حریفش پیش بود.

اما بازی بعد از این چهار گل به آرامی دنبال شد تا در دقیقه ۸۸ فان بومل هلندی گل دوم تیم بایرن مونیخ را به ثمر رساند تا کار رئالی ها در بازی برگشت بسیار سخت شود. با این نتیجه بایرن مونیخ با یک پیروزی یک بر صفر در خانه خود موفق به صعود به دور بعد خواهد شد.

در دیدارهای دیگر منچستریونایتد در زمین لیل با نتیجه یک بر صفر پیروز شد. تک گل منچستری ها را رایان گیگز در دقیقه ۸۸ به ثمر رساند.

بازیکنان لیل شدیدا به گل گیگز معترض بودند، به نحوی که چندین دقیقه در بازی وقفه ایجاد شد و حتی تصور می رفت بازیکنان تیم فرانسوی بازی را نیمه کاره رها خواهند کرد. در طول بازی درگیری هایی میان تماشاگران نیز رخ داد که منجر به دخالت پلیس ضدشورش شد. منچستریونایتد از یوفا خواسته است این مسئله را بررسی کند.

تیم آرسنال نیز در زمین تیم آیندهوون با یک گل شکست خورد. آرسن ونگر مربی فرانسوی آرسنال در پایان بازی بازیکنان حریف را به وقت کشی بیش از حد متهم کرد.

آث میلان نیز در زمین سلتیک گلاسکو به مساوی بدون گل رسید تا شانسش برای صعود به مرحله بعد بیشتر شود.

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Barcelona's reign as European champions ended on Tuesday when their 1-0 win at Liverpool was not enough to stop them being eliminated on the away goals rule after their first-round tie ended 2-2 on aggregate.

The only goal of a tumultuous night of end-to-end football came when Eidur Gudjohnsen rounded Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina after 75 minutes to slot the ball into an empty net just four minutes after coming on as a substitute for Lilian Thuram.

That squared the tie at 2-2 following Liverpool's 2-1 win at the Nou Camp two weeks ago, but Barcelona needed at least two goals to secure a victory and they rarely looked like doing that.

The Spanish side, eliminated by an English side after beating an English side to become champions last May with their victory over Arsenal in Paris, were attempting to become the first team for 11 years to overturn a first leg home defeat and qualify for the next round.

They might have done so if Ronaldinho had scored rather than hit the post with Reina well beaten after 53 minutes.

Liverpool though had hit the bar twice in the first half through John Arne Riise after 11 minutes and Momo Sissoko after 32 minutes.

And despite this defeat coming just four days after Manchester United won by the same score at Anfield in the Premier League, it was Liverpool's players and fans who were wildly celebrating at the end of a memorable match.

DOMINANT FORCE

It began at a blistering pace with Liverpool the dominant force in the opening exchanges and Barcelona only seriously coming into the game in the second half.

As Liverpool coach Rafa Benitz had predicted on Monday his counterpart Frank Rijkaard opted to play Ronaldinho, Samuel Eto'o and Argentinian Lionel Messi in attack.

But the expected danger from that exhilarating trio never really materialised and Barca only began to look dangerous when Eto'o was replaced by Ludovic Giuly with half an hour to play.

Liverpool also stole the initiative from Barca by forcing the pace of the game from the beginning with Riise going close after eight minutes with a fierce left-footed drive that flew narrowly wide of Victor Valdes's left-hand post.

The Norwegian went even closer three minutes later when he smashed another left-footed shot against the bar when Oleguer stood off him allowing him time to shoot.

Valdes was at the heart of the next two serious goal-scoring incidents, first as hero then as villain.

With Liverpool continuing their almost non-stop attacking forays with Steven Gerrard and Dirk Kuyt running tirelessly, Valdes made an acrobatic double-save, first from Craig Bellamy then Kuyt when both looked certain to score.

While his second save stopped Kuyt scoring, the ball fell into the path of Riise whose powerful header was cleared off the line by Barcelona skipper Carles Puyol.

But six minutes later Valdes was guilty of a careless clearance which went straight to Sissoko, albeit 45 metres from goal.

But the Frenchman, with time and space, connected sweetly and sent the ball thundering off the top of Valdes's bar with the goalkeeper stranded in no-man's land first with a horrified, then a relieved, look on his face.

Deco was Barca's most dangerous player in the opening period but even his influence was limited to flitting around the box and one crunching interception by Carragher on the little Portuguese midfielder summed up Liverpool's intentions.

They rarely allowed Barcelona space and time to play, and in the end the Catralans ran out of both, and lost their grip on their trophy too.

Liverpool, who preceded Barca as European champions, go into Friday's quarter-final draw, while Barca are left to salvage something from their season by attempting to retain their Spanish title.

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Valencia clinched a place in the quarter-finals of the Champions League with a classic "catenaccio" performance when they held Inter Milan to a 0-0 draw at the Mestalla on Tuesday. Having drawn 2-2 in the first leg at the San Siro, the result was enough to put the Spaniards, who reached back-to-back finals in 2000 and 2001, through on the away goals rule.

Victory in the tie gave Valencia some measure of revenge for their previous defeats at the hands of the Italians who knocked them out of the UEFA Cup in 2002 and the Champions League the following season.

Scoring chances were few and far between in a game that developed into a tactical battle in midfield and was dominated by two well organised defences with Valencia centre-halves Roberto Ayala and Raul Albiol outstanding at the back.

Tempers flared at the final whistle when Valencia midfielder Carlos Marchena kicked out at Inter's Nicolas Burdisso sparking a mass brawl in the middle of the pitch.

Valencia substitute David Navarro then ran on to the pitch and threw a punch at Burdisso while the scuffles continued in the tunnel and dressing rooms with security guards having to intervene.

"A Valencia player went mad when he came onto the pitch and hit Burdisso," said Inter coach Roberto Mancini. "He broke Burdisso's nose.

"Players have to learn how to behave on the pitch."

OPENING SCARES

Inter, who came into the match on a 32-match unbeaten run, gave the home side a couple of scares in the opening minutes, centre-back Marco Materazzi causing problems for the Valencia defence at the back post and then heading over the bar after a corner.

But Valencia responded well and it took a fine full-stretch save from Inter keeper Julio Cesar to stop a goal-bound shot from midfielder Ruben Baraja in the 11th minute.

The game quickly settled into a tactical affair, however, with neither side giving anything away as they hunted each other down in midfield and kept their shape at the back.

Valencia suffered a heavy blow when skipper Ruben Baraja, who had been running the show in midfield, went off with what appeared to be a torn thigh muscle nine minutes before halftime to be replaced by Hugo Viana.

Inter had a penalty appeal turned down when a Hernan Crespo shot appeared to hit the hand of Valencia defender Albiol, but the referee waved play on.

Midfielder Dejan Stankovic went close early in the second half when he found himself unmarked at the far post but could only steer his acrobatic volley into the side netting.

Mancini threw on striker Julio Cruz and winger Luis Figo in an attempt to break the deadlock in the second half and the Italians pressed hard in the final quarter.

Midfielder Marchena cleared a Materazzi header off the line after keeper Santiago Canizares was beaten.