English giants Chelsea and Manchester United made hard work of it but ended up coming from behind to both qualify for the Champions League knockout stages on Tuesday.
French champions Bordeaux joined them as they earned an impressive victory over Bayern Munich in Munich, while Porto can also look forward to Champions League soccer in the spring after winning at APOEL Nicosia.
However, things look stark for Bayern Munich and their Champions League-winning coach Louis van Gaal as his side trail second-placed Juventus by four points in Group A with two matches remaining.
Chelsea came from 1-0 down to draw 2-2 with Atletico Madrid — Didier Drogba scoring both goals on his return from a three-match Champions League suspension.
“It was a good game but frustrating because we didn’t win it,” Drogba said. “I have played many Champions League games with Chelsea in the past and to be honest I am just happy to be back on the pitch.”
“We have qualified which is great although it would have been nice to do it with a win,” he said.
Manchester United had to come from even further behind as they trailed 3-1 late into the match against CSKA Moscow at Old Trafford before two goals leveled matters at 3-3 and sent them through.
United manager Sir Alex Ferguson was relieved to have progressed but was left less than happy by the referee’s performance, especially over a penalty that was not awarded for a trip on Darren Fletcher — the Scottish midfielder being booked instead.
“I can’t believe the decision. It’s one of the worst I have seen in my lifetime,” fumed the irascible Scot.
In the other Group B game in Istanbul, Besiktas suffered a 0-3 reverse against Germany’s VfL Wolfsburg.
AC Milan and Real Madrid’s group has become one of the tightest as the two giants fought out a 1-1 draw in Milan, while rivals Marseille thrashed FC Zurich 6-1 to stand just a point behind the duo.
Milan and Real shared the spoils at the San Siro, with both goals coming in the first half.
Karim Benzema got his first goal in seven matches for the visitors before Ronaldinho drew Milan level from the penalty spot.
Milan’s Brazilian coach Leonardo said a draw was probably the right result.
“If we look only at the first half, Real played very well, they had many chances but in the second I was a bit disappointed because we deserved to win,” he said.
Marseille had wrapped things up shortly after half-time as captain Mamadou Niang was on hand to round off a nicely worked move by the French side to make it 3-1 against FC Zurich and then romped away to leave themselves in with a real chance of making the knockout stages.
On a good night for French sides Bordeaux qualified after securing a splendid 2-0 victory over Bayern Munich — French international Yoann Gourcuff netting in the first half and Moroccan international Marouane Chamakh sealing victory late on in the second-half.
Bordeaux coach Laurent Blanc was immensely proud of his team’s achievement.
“All in all, I am very satisfied,” said Blanc, who is fast building a reputation as one of the best young coaches in European soccer.
“I think that this evening Bordeaux achieved something special in beating Bayern here in Munich and qualifying for the knockout stages,” he said.
Van Gaal, victorious in this competition with Ajax in 1995, refused to accept that elimination was inevitable.
“It wasn’t our best performance but we are not gone yet,” the Dutchman said. “We still have a small chance to qualify.”
Bayern’s position is even more precarious given that Juventus beat Maccabi Haifa 1-0 in Israel — World Cup winner Mauro Camoranesi scoring in the first half.
Juve coach Ciro Ferrara admitted that his side had struggled to put the game away.
“We suffered, but we deserved the win,” he said.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier