|
Home>News Center>Sports | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Chelsea, AC Milan advance
AC Milan and Chelsea were both winning late in their Champions League quarterfinal matches on Tuesday, and both advanced to the semifinals despite crazy endings.
Milan was leading city rival Inter Milan 1-0 and 3-0 on aggregate when the match was halted in the 73rd minute because Milan goalkeeper Dida was hit by a flare. The Brazilian was treated at midfield and the teams were escorted off the field about 10 minutes later. UEFA officials later called off the match, sending Milan to the last four and in search of its seventh European Cup title. Chelsea was leading Bayern Munich for much of night, but the German hosts scored two late goals to edge the English leaders 3-2. Chelsea still advanced with a 6-5 aggregate win. Dida had played a superb before being hit by the flare, but Inter fans were upset that a goal by Esteban Cambiasso was annulled for a dubious foul in the 71st. Andriy Shevchenko gave Milan the lead in the 30th minute, blasting in a shot from the edge of the area to the goalkeeper's left. It was his fifth goal in this season's Champions League. Shevchenko, who returned last week after a 46-day absence due to a cheekbone fracture, also scored in the first leg. Alessandro Nesta was cautioned in the 43rd for a tackle on Adriano. The defender's second yellow card means he will miss the first leg of the semifinals. In 2003, AC Milan eliminated Inter from the semifinals and went on to win its sixth Champions Cup title. In Munich, Frank Lampard scored the first goal in the 30th minute, his third against Bayern in the two-leg series. Claudio Pizarro leveled in the 65th, but Didier Drogba reclaimed the lead for Chelsea with a header in the 80th. Paolo Guerreo then scored in the 90th, and Mehmet Scholl added the winner in injury time. Chelsea was playing without manager Jose Mourinho on the bench for the second straight Champions League match. The Portuguese coach was banned last week after UEFA found him guilty of bringing the game into disrepute and "making false declarations." He originally took his seat away from the field at Munich's Olympiastadion, but soon left and reportedly watched the match at the team's hotel. Mourinho, who won the European title last season with FC Porto, will be back for the semifinals. Lampard took a pass from Joe Cole and scored with a shot that went in off goalkeeper Oliver Kahn's foot after deflecting off the leg of Bayern defender Lucio. Last week, Cole scored Chelsea's opening goal with a shot that deflected in off Lucio. Bayern, which unlucky not to score on several occasions in the first half, finally got a goal in the 65th when Pizarro tapped in a rebound after Michael Ballack's header was saved by Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech. Ballack missed a pair of late chances in the first half, and 19-year-old Bastian Schweinsteiger made a dangerous run in the 18th minute but shot wide. Cole set up his team's final goal with a cross for Drogba, who also scored late in the first leg. But Guerrero earned the draw in the final minute. On Tuesday, Juventus hosts Liverpool and PSV Eindhoven takes on visiting Lyon. Liverpool topped Juve 2-1 last week in the first leg, a match that commemorated the Heysel Stadium tragedy nearly 20 years ago. PSV scored late to hold Lyon to a 1-1 draw. In the semifinals, Chelsea will face either Liverpool or Juventus, while Milan challenges on PSV or Lyon. The semifinals are scheduled for April 26-27 and May 3-4, with the final set for May 25 in Istanbul, Turkey.
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
