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Champions League March 2010
Champions League: England's supremacy questioned as Chelsea exit early to Jose Mourinho's Inter
Ozren Podnar
Real Madrid may be having a hot streak in the Spanish League, but no amount of money spent on flashy signings manages to help them break the spell of the Champions League round of sixteen. This level of competition should not be the limit for a club that have spent more than 250 million euros on the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka and Benzema, but that is where Real were stopped for the sixth year in succession.
The Spaniards are talking about a European curse after their flagship side was knocked out by a theoretically inferior Olympique Lyon 2-1 on aggregate, the second shocker of the season, the first being the humiliating defeat to lowly Alcorcon in the Spanish Cup in October.
It is now six years since Real Madrid last reached the quarterfinals by edging their perennial rivals Bayern. There followed a dramatic elimination by Fernando Morientes' Monaco on away goals (4-2, 1-3), which stunned the soccer world. However, after 2004 Real failed to reach even that stage, slipping up against Juventus, Arsenal, Bayern, Roma, Liverpool and Lyon. It gets worse; the last time the Royals achieved a win in the round of 16 was in 2007, a futile 3-2 result over Bayern. From then on, Roma beat Real twice in 2008, Liverpool twice in 2009 and Lyon could also have done the double had Lisandro and Pjanic been a bit more composed in the last minutes of the return leg in Madrid.
Kaka and the coach Manuel Pellegrini were singled out as the scapegoats by the Spanish press and the Brazilian has been tipped for a premature departure next summer on the grounds of his less than impressive displays in his first season. After Pellegrini substituted Kaka late in the second half of the Lyon game, his agent Diogo Kotschko called Pellegrini "a coward" on Twitter because "only cowards substitute a player in order to turn the attention from their own impotence."
Arsenal defy tradition against Porto
As far as traditions go, Arsenal and Manchester United broke a couple of their own negative European records against Porto and Milan. Arsenal managed to overturn a first-leg deficit for the first time after 1978, when they narrowly defeated Hajduk Split on away goals (1-2 and 1-0). After going down so many times in the meantime, to rivals that include Bayern, PSV Eindhoven and Manchester United, Arsenal came back in style, demolishing Porto 5-0 and dwarfing their minimal 1-2 deficit from the first leg.
Manchester United finally managed to score on Milan's home soil. Not once, but three times, setting the stage for an easy return leg. At Old Trafford a neat 4-0 was sweet revenge for their 2007 elimination to the same rival in the semifinals, and the 7-2 aggregate one of the worst suffered by the Italians in European competitions.
English supremacy in the Champions League was already dented by Liverpool's early demise to Fiorentina and Lyon, but Chelsea's loss to Internazionale was slightly more painful due to Jose Mourinho's ironic presence on the opponents' bench. The coach, who prided himself at never having lost a game at Stamford Bridge, preserved this healthy record when it was least desired by the Chelsea fans. To complete his satisfaction, Mourinho overcame the opposition of Carlo Ancelotti, Milan's ex-coach and his old foe from Serie A.
Round of 16 results
Porto vs Arsenal 2-1 0-5
Stuttgart vs Barcelona 1-1 0-4
Olympique Lyon vs Real Madrid 1-0 1-1
Milan vs Manchester United 2-3 0-4
CSKA Moscow vs Sevilla 1-1 2-1
Internazionale vs Chelsea 2-1 1-0
Olympiacos vs Bordeaux 0-1 1-2
Bayern vs Fiorentina 2-1 2-3
Quarterfinal ties
Bayern Munich vs Manchester United
Olympique Lyon vs Bordeaux
Arsenal vs Barcelona
Internazionale vs CSKA Moscow
Semifinal ties
Winner Bayern vs Manchester - winner Lyon vs Bordeaux
Winner Arsenal vs Barcelona - winner Inter vs CSKA
Champions League Quarterfinals
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