LONDON - Holders Manchester United soothed a painful old
wound for Alex Ferguson by knocking Inter Milan out of the
Champions League on Wednesday, as Barcelona mauled Olympique Lyon
5-2 in a thrilling return to form.
Arsenal made it four English teams in the
quarter-finals for the second successive year, their youngsters
showing great composure to see them home 7-6 on penalties away to
AS Roma.
The Stadio Olimpico in Rome will be the stage for the final in
May and few would bet against at least one English team being back
there to play in it.
United and Arsenal joined Liverpool and Chelsea, who scored
contrasting wins on Tuesday, when Bayern Munich and Villarreal also
came through.
If Tuesday's games were marked by wrecking-ball performances
from Liverpool, who stunned Real
Madrid 4-0, and Bayern, who beat
Sporting 7-1 to notch up a record 12-1 aggregate
victory, Wednesday's ties provided much more subtlety and
tension.
United beat Inter Milan 2-0 at
Old Trafford thanks to headers early in each half from Nemanja
Vidic and Cristiano Ronaldo.
The result gave United a record of 21 matches unbeaten in major
European competitions and made it a satisfying night for Ferguson
against his old nemesis Jose Mourinho.
Five years ago Mourinho danced up the Old Trafford touchline
after his Porto team pulled off a shock victory on their way to
winning the 2004 Champions League.
Mourinho continued to get the better of Ferguson on a regular
basis after taking over at Chelsea and there were times on
Wednesday when it looked like being a familiar story.
NO DANCING
Vidic's early goal still left Inter needing just one goal to
edge ahead and they very nearly got it, with Dejan Stankovic twice
going close and Zlatan Ibrahimovic heading against the bar.
Inter continued to look the better side at the start of the
second half before the deftest of chips from England striker Wayne
Rooney set up Ronaldo to settle the tie.
"My team was fantastic but they were not lucky," Mourinho
said.
Barcelona led Lyon 4-0 at the
Nou Camp after Thierry Henry had struck twice and Lionel Messi and
Samuel Eto'o joined in the fun, before conceding two quick goals
either side of halftime to the French side.
The Catalans were flirting with disaster but they gradually
regained their composure and a late strike from Seydou Keita
rounded off a 6-3 aggregate win.
"We had a little fright when they scored their second but we
managed to plug the gaps," said Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola.
Arsenal held a 1-0 lead from the first leg
against Roma but that was soon cancelled out by
Juan, who had time to pick his spot after the visiting defence had
inexplicably left him unmarked in the area.
Eduardo's first penalty for Arsenal was saved but a weak effort
from Mirko Vucinic levelled things up and the shootout went on,
with inexperienced players like Theo Walcott and Denilson scoring
before Max Tonetto blasted over the bar to dash Roma hopes of
playing in a home final.
The quarter-final line-up was completed by
Porto, who squeezed through on the away goals rule
after a 0-0 draw at home to Atletico Madrid.