Porto thru but Celtic just fail

Published November 2, 2001

LONDON, Nov 1: Porto scraped into the second phase of the Champions League with a 1-0 win over Rosenborg Trondheim Wednesday to become the 16th and final team to qualify for the next stage.

A 36th minute goal from Jesus Pena gave the 1987 European champions the vital victory they needed over the Norwegians.

Celtic, who beat already-qualified group winners Juventus 4-3 in a thrilling match at Parkhead, had to settle for third place in Group E and a consolation spot in the UEFA Cup.

Juventus won the group with 11 points, followed by Porto (10), Celtic (9) and Rosenborg (4). Rosenborg were eliminated.

All the other Champions League issues were settled before Wednesday’s final round of matches, and as well as Celtic taking their place in the UEFA Cup, Lille and Feyenoord also secured their places in the secondary competition.

Porto join Boavista as the two Portuguese teams going into Friday’s draw for the second phase of the Champions League.

The other qualifiers include three teams from England: Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal; three from Spain: Real Madrid, Barcelona and Deportivo Coruna, two from Italy: AS Roma and Juventus, and two from Germany: reigning champions Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen.

The four remaining qualifiers are Nantes (France), Panathinaikos (Greece), Galatasaray (Turkey) and Sparta Prague (Czech Republic).

Lille qualified for the UEFA Cup by finishing third in group G thanks to their 1-1 draw in the nearby town of Lens with Manchester United.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer scored a stunning opener after six minutes for United when he lashed in an unstoppable angled left-footed cross-shot, but Bruno Cheyrou equalised for the French team after 65 minutes with a powerful shot that perhaps United’s stand-in keeper Roy Carroll could have stopped.

But Lille owed a measure of thanks to already-qualified Deportivo Coruna.

Olympiakos were looking set for third spot thanks to Alekos Alexandris’s 51st minute goal, but with just seven minutes to go, Joan Capdevila equalised for Deportivo and that changed everything.

With both matches ending in 1-1 draws, Deportivo finished first in the group with 10 points, followed by Manchester United (10), Lille (6) and Olympiakos (5).

Feyenoord salvaged something from their woeful campaign with a 2-1 victory over Spartak Moscow which gave them their first win in Group H.

Jon Dahl Tomasson scored to put Feyenoord ahead after five minutes and although the prolific Vladimir Beschastnykh equalised for Spartak nine minutes later, a goal four minutes after that from Johan Elmander was enough to give Feyenoord the points.

Feyenoord finished third with five points while Spartak finished bottom with just two. European champions Bayern Munich beat Sparta Prague 1-0 in Prague to win the group with 14 points, Sparta also qualifying with 11.

In other matches Wednesday, Olympique Lyon beat Bayer Leverkusen 4-2 in Germany in their Group F match while Barcelona beat Fenerbahce 1-0 with an injury-time Rivaldo goal.

The Turkish side deserved at least a draw from a gutsy performance but instead lost their sixth successive match and became only the second side in the history of the competition to complete a group phase without a point.

Kosice of Slovakia were the only other team to perform that unwanted feat in the 1997-98 season.

Barcelona won the group with 13 points, followed by Leverkusen (12), Lyon (9) and Fenerbahce (1).

The draw for the second phase of the Champions League takes place on Friday in Geneva as does the draw for the third round of the UEFA Cup.—Reuters

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