PARIS – It was Spanish night in the Champions League on Tuesday as Barcelona won their grudge match with English Premiership champions Chelsea and Villarreal edged Scottish champions Rangers to both move into the quarter-finals.
The night’s other match saw Italian giants Juventus move fortuitously into the quarter-finals thanks to a dreadful error by Werder Bremen goalkeeper Tim Weise which saw them come from behind to win 2-1 at home on the night – 4-4 on aggregate – and win on the away goal rule. Barcelona avenged their defeat by Chelsea in last year’s knockout stage to draw 1-1 – 3-2 on aggregate – on the night with a special piece of wizardry by Ronaldinho sealing the tie effectively 10 minutes from time.A stoppage time penalty by Frank Lampard was simply an irrelevance.Rangers had one foot in the quarter-finals when a Peter Lovenkrands goal gave them a 1-0 lead over Villarreal.However Rodolfo Arruabarrena’s equaliser early in the second-half saw the hosts hold on for a 1-1 draw and go through on the away goals rule with the match ending 3-3 on aggregate.Rangers became the third British side to be ousted from the competition by the Spanish outfit this campaign as Villarreal had already seen off Everton and Manchester United.”The best team did not win,” said Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho who should have had little cause for complaint as his side had never really threatened to pull off victory.”Eleven against 11 we would have won (he said referring to the sending-off of Chelsea’s Asier del Horno in the first leg).”The first leg we lost a player and we had to come here 2-1 down.If we had a bit of luck and scored before the last minute it could have changed us mentally and it would have been different.”Mourinho, who had been taunted on his arrival in Barcelona with shouts of ‘translator, translator’ because of his role at the club under Sir Bobby Robson in the 90s, even criticised referee Markus Merk.”As it was after the penalty the referee did not play another second.”His Barca counterpart Frank Rijkaard preferred to focus on his team.”The team pulled off a really good performance,” said the former Dutch international.”We stayed focused till the end and although we made some tactical mistakes our defenders held the line really well.”While Mourinho was sour about defeat Rangers boss Alex McLeish was just left frustrated that his team had missed out.”We were so close to getting one of the greatest ever results in the club’s history,” said McLeish, who will end his generally successful term at the helm at the end of the season.Villarreal coach Manuel Pellegrini said his team had passed an important test of their credentials in their debut season in the competition.”We know that we have achieved something important for the club and for Villarreal,” said Pellegrini.Mourinho’s bitterness and McLeish’s frustration were nothing compared to the misery of poor old Weise who, after a superb display, spilled a routine catch in the 88th minute to give Emerson the easiest of tap-ins for Juve.However perhaps the last word should be left to Mourinho given it is the last time he will appear at this season’s tournament as he had a typically straight response to his thoughts on how the quarter-finals might pan out.-Nampa-AFPBarcelona avenged their defeat by Chelsea in last year’s knockout stage to draw 1-1 – 3-2 on aggregate – on the night with a special piece of wizardry by Ronaldinho sealing the tie effectively 10 minutes from time.A stoppage time penalty by Frank Lampard was simply an irrelevance.Rangers had one foot in the quarter-finals when a Peter Lovenkrands goal gave them a 1-0 lead over Villarreal.However Rodolfo Arruabarrena’s equaliser early in the second-half saw the hosts hold on for a 1-1 draw and go through on the away goals rule with the match ending 3-3 on aggregate.Rangers became the third British side to be ousted from the competition by the Spanish outfit this campaign as Villarreal had already seen off Everton and Manchester United.”The best team did not win,” said Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho who should have had little cause for complaint as his side had never really threatened to pull off victory.”Eleven against 11 we would have won (he said referring to the sending-off of Chelsea’s Asier del Horno in the first leg).”The first leg we lost a player and we had to come here 2-1 down.If we had a bit of luck and scored before the last minute it could have changed us mentally and it would have been different.”Mourinho, who had been taunted on his arrival in Barcelona with shouts of ‘translator, translator’ because of his role at the club under Sir Bobby Robson in the 90s, even criticised referee Markus Merk.”As it was after the penalty the referee did not play another second.”His Barca counterpart Frank Rijkaard preferred to focus on his team.”The team pulled off a really good performance,” said the former Dutch international.”We stayed focused till the end and although we made some tactical mistakes our defenders held the line really well.”While Mourinho was sour about defeat Rangers boss Alex McLeish was just left frustrated that his team had missed out.”We were so close to getting one of the greatest ever results in the club’s history,” said McLeish, who will end his generally successful term at the helm at the end of the season.Villarreal coach Manuel Pellegrini said his team had passed an important test of their credentials in their debut season in the competition.”We know that we have achieved something important for the club and for Villarreal,” said Pellegrini.Mourinho’s bitterness and McLeish’s frustration were nothing compared to the misery of poor old Weise who, after a superb display, spilled a routine catch in the 88th minute to give Emerson the easiest of tap-ins for Juve.However perhaps the last word should be left to Mourinho given it is the last time he will appear at this season’s tournament as he had a typically straight response to his thoughts on how the quarter-finals might pan out.-Nampa-AFP
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