Barcelona's Ronaldinho celebrates a goal during their Champions League first knockout round return leg match against Chelsea at Nou Camp Stadium in Barcelona yesterday. - REUTERS
LONDON (Reuters):
BARCELONA AND Villarreal from Spain and Italians Juventus all reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League yesterday as Chelsea, Rangers and Werder Bremen crashed out of the competition.
Barca avenged their elimination by the London side at this stage last year with a 3-2 aggregate win, helped by Ronaldinho's outstanding individual goal 12 minutes from time that put the Spaniards 1-0 ahead on the night and 3-1 up on aggregate.
LAST KICK
Frank Lampard scored from the penalty spot with the last kick of the game to give Chelsea a draw at the Nou Camp, but the goal came too late to save the tie for Joseé Mourinho's side.
In Turin, Juventus beat Werder Bremen 2-1 to go through on the away goals rule, after a dreadful late blunder by German goalkeeper Tim Wiese gifted the Italians victory.
With the score at 1-1 on the night and two minutes to go, Wiese, who had been outstanding until then, fumbled a harmless cross and Brazilian Emerson slotted the ball into an unguarded goal to make the aggregate score 4-4 and put Juve through.
Werder looked set to advance when a 13th-minute goal from Johan Micoud put them 1-0 up in the second leg and 4-2 clear on aggregate, but Juve drew level on the night in the 65th minute when French forward David Trezeguet scored.
Villarreal's maiden Champions League journey continued as a 1-1 draw with Rangers put them into the quarter-finals on away goals.
EARLY FRIGHT
The Spanish club, who drew 2-2 in Glasgow in the first leg, suffered an early fright when they fell behind to a Peter Lovenkrands strike after 12 minutes - his 17th goal of the season.
Villarreal scored what proved to be the tie-clincher after 49 minutes when Rodolfo Arruabarrena fired home after Diego Forlan had cut the ball back.
Four second leg ties will be played today when Arsenal face Real Madrid, AC Milan play Bayern Munich, European champions Liverpool take on Benfica and Olympique Lyon host PSV Eindhoven.
The remaining second leg tie will be between Inter Milan and Ajax.
