The European Champions League Round of 16 is just finished as we go to press. Two up, two down for beleaguered English teams, a great week for the Italians, and Spain shut out of the final eight in a pair of sublimely dramatic thrillers.
• Chelsea stormed back from a first-game loss to edge Barcelona on a late goal in a wild game in London and “utterly” denies that any of its employees called Barcelona’s Cameroonian striker Samuel Eto’o a “monkey of shit” in the tunnel afterward.
• Liverpool had no trouble at all at Bayer Leverkusen, romping 3-1 (6-2 aggregate).
• AC Milan shut down Manchester United 1-0 (again) and advance to the quarterfinals not having allowed a goal in their last four Champions League games.
• Juventus knocked out Real Madrid in Torino with a tiebreaking goal deep into overtime. Los Galacticos look like they’ll finish another year without winning anything.
• Bayern Munich outplayed Arsenal for long stretches, and made their two-goal advantage from the first game stand up, though the Londoners managed a 1-0 home win.
• Lyon destroyed German champs Werder Bremen, 7-2, to stake their claim among the elite.
• PSV Eindhoven, another relative outsider, scored a surprisingly easy 2-0 win in Monaco.
• Inter Milan/FC Porto will be played March 15, due to a scheduling conflict in Milan.
Our region has its own equivalent of the Champions League, the CONCACAF Champions Cup – and at press time the two U.S. entrants, D.C. United and the Kansas City Wizards, are preparing to kick off the first leg of the quarterfinals at home against Harbour View of Jamaica and Costa Rica’s Saprissa. The return leg is next week, leading up to the two-legged final on May 4. Look for results on austinchronicle.com.
This article appears in March 11 • 2005.