Defending champ Porto avoided Champions League elimination on Tuesday, scoring with just four minutes to play to hand Chelsea their first loss of the competition and advance to the round of 16. All four English clubs advanced as well, with Liverpool mounting a thrilling comeback in front of the home fans. The big-name casualties were Spanish champ Valencia and Paris St. Germain, who lost a 3-1 shocker at home to CSKA Moscow. But in the end, the big-name, big-money clubs took every single spot in the Champs League Round of 16, with only Porto and Philips Electronics PSV Eindhoven breaking the Big Five (England, Italy, Germany, Spain, France) oligopoly. Full results are on “Soccer Watch Online”; the Round of 16 will begin in February.
Notre Dame won the NCAA Womens championship on Sunday, outlasting UCLA in the first penalty shoot-out ever to decide a title game. The Irish become the first team other than North Carolina to win more than one championship; they took their first title in 1995, under current UT coach Chris Petrucelli. This weekend it’s the guys’ turn.
The NCAA mens semifinals will be played on Friday and shown tape-delayed on ESPN2 on Saturday, Dec. 11. Its Indiana vs. Maryland (ranked 2 and 3, respectively) at 11am, and a pair of underdogs ninth-seeded UC-Santa Barbara and unseeded Duke at 10pm. The final, live on ESPN2, is at 3pm Sunday.
This article appears in December 10 • 2004.