For the second year in a row, Barcelona has knocked Arsenal out of the European Champions League in dramatic fashion, this time reversing a first-leg loss to advance to the quarterfinals by a 4-3 aggregate score, in a game that included an own goal, a controversial red card to Arsenal’s Robin Van Persie at a point when the Gunners held the lead, and a gorgeous, audacious goal from player of the year Lionel Messi. The Gunners’ pain is likely worsened because North London rivals Tottenham Hotspur will be going through to the next round, after ousting Italian league leaders AC Milan. Elsewhere, Schalke 04 beat Valencia, and Italian soccer continued its slide as Roma bowed out meekly, 6-2, to upstart Ukrainians Shakhtar Donetsk. Too many of those types of losses explains why UEFA just announced that Italy will lose a Champions League qualifying spot starting in 2012-13. The round of 16 concludes next week, March 15-16; the Fox Soccer Channel games are Manchester United vs. Marseille on Tuesday and Chelsea vs. Copenhagen on Wednesday, both at 2:30pm.
Before that, there are a couple of great rivalry games on FSC this weekend, March 12-13: Manchester United hosting Arsenal in an FA Cup quarterfinal, 11am Saturday, and the Rome derby Roma vs. Lazio, 9am Sunday.
This article appears in March 11 • 2011.