LONDON, Oct 23: Defending champions Real Madrid and fellow Spaniards Valencia both gave up late equalisers on Tuesday to put their progress to the second phase of the Champions League on hold.

Real threw away a 2-0 home lead to draw 2-2 with AEK Athens while Valencia were within seconds of their fourth win only to draw 2-2 at Basel.

It was even worse for Arsenal, another side looking for the three points needed to progress, as they lost 2-1 at home to Auxerre.

That, and Liverpool’s 3-1 win at Spartak Moscow courtesy of a Michael Owen hat-trick, were the only positive results from the night’s games as six of the eight ended level.

Olympique Lyon and Inter Milan shared six goals in a classic encounter in France and with Rosenborg Trondheim grabbing a late equaliser for a 1-1 draw at Ajax Amsterdam, Group D remains wide open.

Borussia Dortmund drew 1-1 at home with PSV Eindhoven in Group A, a result that will ease group leaders Arsenal’s frustrations.

AS Roma missed a great chance to make ground on Real when they were held to a goalless home draw by Genk in Group C.

However, Real, who had to battle back to snatch a 3-3 draw in Athens in their last European outing, got sloppy after the break and Costas Katsouranis pulled one back after 74 minutes and Walter Centeno snatched the equaliser four minutes from time.

Real remain top of Group C with eight points from four games. Roma have five, AEK four and Genk two.

Results:

Borussia Dortmund 1 PSV Eindhoven 1

Arsenal 1 AJ Auxerre 2

Spartak Moscow 1 Liverpool 3

Basel 2 Valencia 2

Real Madrid 2 AEK Athens 2

AS Roma 0 Genk 0

Olympique Lyon 3 Inter Milan 3

Ajax 1 Rosenborg Trondhiem 1

—Reuters