Barcelona's Ronaldinho (right) celebrates with Rafael Marquez after the Spanish side scored from a Chelsea own goal during their Champions League knockout round first leg match at Stamford Bridge yesterday. Barcelona won 2-1. - REUTERS
LONDON, (Reuters):
ON A remarkable night of Champions League comebacks, Barcelona beat 10-man Chelsea 2-1 in London while Werder Bremen scored twice in the last three minutes to beat Juventus 3-2 in their first knockout round first legs.
Inter Milan recovered from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 at Ajax Amsterdam while Rangers twice came from behind to draw 2-2 with Villarreal in Glasgow.
What had been billed as the game of the round at Stamford Bridge looked to have been spoiled by a red card for Chelsea's Spanish fullback Asier Del Horno in the 37th minute for a wild lunge at Argentine teenager Lionel Messi.
MUDDY PITCH
On a muddy pitch, depleted Chelsea battled on and took the lead with a Thiago Motta own goal after an hour.
Another own goal, by Chelsea captain John Terry, levelled it 12 minutes later and Samuel Eto'o headed Barcelona's precious winner 10 minutes from time.
Barcelona won by the same score at the same stage last season, but that was at the Nou Camp and Chelsea won the home return 4-2.
TOPSY-TURVY NIGHT
Werder enjoyed a topsy-turvy night against Serie A leaders Juventus, leading 1-0 at half-time after a scrambled goal by fullback Christian Schulz having peppered the Juve goal with 17 shots and headers.
Juve hit back to lead with goals by Pavel Nedved (73) and David Trezeguet (82) but Tim Bor-owski's near-post flick levelled the scores in the 87th minute and Johan Micoud then scrambled in an injury-time winner.
Ajax produced one of their best first-half performances of the season to lead Inter with goals by Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Mauro Rosales inside the first 20 minutes.
Inter kept cool however, and after hitting the bar twice in the same attack, pulled one back with a deflected Dejan Stankovic shot three minutes into the second half and poured on the pressure before equalising when Julio Cruz swept in from close range four minutes from time.
Villarreal continue to impress in their debut season in Europe's elite competition, though they still have work to do after twice allowing Rangers back into the tie.
An inexplicable handball by Croatian striker Dado Prso allowed Juan Roman Riquelme to drive in an early penalty, the Scottish side levelling with a superb Peter Lovenkrands shot after 22 minutes.
Diego Forlan controversially sprung the offside trap to put Villarreal 2-1 up in the 35th minute then missed a sitter before Rangers were handed a lifeline eight minutes from time when Juan Manuel Pena deflected a cross into his own net.
