In Europe, it’s the season of midweek football, as the heavyweight teams from across the Continent face off in the Champions League and UEFA Cup. The UEFA Cup round of 16 gets under way this Thursday – see schedule below. The Champs League round of 16 ended Tuesday and Wednesday, and a couple of big names were eliminated at home: Juventus in Torino and Manchester United at Old Trafford stadium. But two clubs from London made it into the final eight, along with two French and two Spanish teams. The quarterfinals will begin March 23. Here’s a thumbnail of this week’s results:

Porto of Portugal got a 90th-minute shocker to tie Manchester United, 1-1, and advance by a 3-2 aggregate score. Manchester’s 1-0 margin to that point would’ve put them into the quarterfinals for the eighth straight year; their young U.S. goalie Tim Howard had a heroic game but gave up a rebound that Porto converted for the fatal goal.

Deportivo la Coruna got an early goal to demoralize Juventus and made it stand up to win both games by identical 1-0 scores, as the vaunted Italian attack sputtered, especially after Alessandro del Piero left with an injury after six minutes.

Lyon was too strong for Real Sociedad; the French side likewise swept a pair of 1-0 games.

Chelsea wrestled Stuttgart to an uninspired 0-0 draw and rode its 1-0 first leg win into the quarters.

Arsenal coasted, 2-0, over Celta Vigo after winning 3-2 in Spain two weeks ago.

Monaco made one goal stand up to oust a Lokomotiv Moscow team that played a man down for the last hour after their captain was red-carded.

AC Milan turned it on late against Sparta Prague, netting three in the final 23 minutes to win 4-1 after a scoreless first leg.

Real Madrid got a goal from Zinedine Zidane to eliminate Bayern Munich, 1-0, after getting a late 1-1 tie in Munich.

UEFA Cup – Round of 16

(Home and away; March 11 & 25)

Genclerbirligi (TUR) vs. Valencia (SP)

Auxerre (FR) vs. PSV Eindhoven (HOL)

Bordeaux (FR) vs. Club Brugge (BEL)

Newcastle (ENG) vs. Mallorca (SP)

Benfica (POR) vs. Inter Milan (IT)

Celtic (SCO) vs. Barcelona (SP)

Liverpool (ENG) vs. Marseille (FR)

Villarreal (SP) vs. Roma (IT)

This article appears in March 12 • 2004.

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