Spain had a red envelope night in the Champions League on Wednesday but their ecstasy was English misery as Barcelona and Valencia extinguished Newcastle and Arsenal's hopes of making the last eight.
Arsenal's 2-1 Group B defeat in Valencia came thanks to a double by Norwegian international striker John Carew, the same man who ended their hopes two years ago in the quarterfinals, and extended their winless drought in all competitions to four matches.
Arsenal, who have only made the last eight once in five campaigns, saw their last hope of sneaking in disappear as Dutch side Ajax confirmed their youthful promise by holding AS Roma 1-1 in Rome, Andy van der Meyde scoring in the first minute, to progress while the Italian giants exited.
Newcastle's 2-0 defeat at home to Barcelona in Group A confirmed the end of their great adventure this season.
However even victory over a club formerly managed by their boss Bobby Robson wouldn't have mattered a jot as Inter Milan beat ailing Champions League finalists Bayer Leverkusen 2-0 to reach the quarterfinals.
Carew's double either side of a trademark goal by Thierry Henry propelled the Spanish side into top spot in the group and ended a winless run of five matches in all competitions and handed Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger a salutary lesson in not opening ones mouth before the season is over.
The Frenchman had opined earlier in the season his side was good enough to go unbeaten in all competitions and their exit will be all the sourer given that his bitter rival Manchester United's handler Alex Ferguson will take the only English representative into the last eight.
"We are all in the same boat and I'm not going to put the blame on anyone in particular," Wenger said.
"We are all responsible. But it is also a question of bad luck, this is the only game we have lost in this phase of the competition.
"We just ran out of steam after the second goal. I thought we might be a bit mentally tougher," added the Frenchman.
His Spanish counterpart Rafa Benitez was delighted his bold declaration beforehand of winning had come off.
"The word defeat isn't part of our vocabulary," he said, using triumphant phraselogy rarely heard from the usually taciturn coach.
Benitez said Carew's habit of scoring against Arsenal came out of his desire to play in England, a move to Fulham fell through at the last minute last season.
"Carew likes English football and so maybe he has a special motivation to do well in the Champions League against teams from there," said Benitez.
Two pieces of slack defending cost Newcastle dearly after a bright start had seen them take the game to Barcelona, who having already qualified, fielded an under strength side.
However goals from Dutch ace Patrick Kluivert, his 29th goal in the competition, and Thiago Motta showed striker Craig Bellamy the way to take your chances as the Magpies Welsh star spurned several chances extending his goalless streak to nine matches.
"We conceded two schoolboy goals," admitted Robson.
"We've had a sharp lesson tonight.
"When you are the better side, as we were in the first half, that is when you have to score. And if we had scored then we would have won," added the 70-year-old former England handler.
Inter took care of Leverkusen with goals from promising Nigerian striker Obafemi Martins and Turkish ace Emre to secure their place and give boss Hector Cuper hopes of at last securing European club football's most prestigious prize after two losing finals with Valencia.
For Leverkusen it rounded off a desperate campaign which left them with the unwanted statistic of being the only side to ever finish the second phase with no points.
Van der Meyde's lightning fast goal for Ajax knocked the stuffing out of Roma and though they managed to level they were unable to score the goal that would have given them a chance of making the last eight and their exit will only add to the pressure on boss Fabio Capello, who tasted European glory with the great AC Milan side of the early 90's.
"We deserved victory because we created more chances but we started with a massive handicap by conceding an early goal," Capello said.
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