November 1, 2002	Friday	Sha’aban 25,1423

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PARIS, Oct 31: No manager likes to lose but both Arsenal’s and Champions League holders Real Madrid’s defeats Wednesday had a sugar-coated edge as results elsewhere dictated they qualified for the second phase anyway.

Arsenal dived to their fourth successive loss — equalling their worst sequence in 19 years — losing 2-1 away at Borussia Dortmund, who also qualified while Real went down 1-0 at home to AS Roma but having beaten the Italians 3-0 in the opening match they have a better head to head record.

Arsenal progressed thanks to PSV Eindhoven’s 3-0 win over Auxerre, who imploded having two players sent-off.

Real’s defeat could have come at an extra cost as French playmaker Zinedine Zidane had to leave the pitch early after a robust challenge by Brazilian Aldair left him with a heavily bruised thigh to add to his painful groin and right knee problem he went into the match with.

Roma, though, will have to wait as they host AEK Athens in a fortnight with a victory for the Greeks taking them through, but having been held to their fifth successive draw by Belgian outift Genk in Athens the Italians should feel reasonably confident.

Real were joined by Spanish champions Valencia in the second phase after they deservedly beat Liverpool 1-0 away and left the English side perhaps needing to beat Swiss side Basel in their final match in a fortnight — provided Basel beat tailenders Spartak Moscow in their delayed match next week.

The only group still wide open involves the three-way tussle in Group D between Inter Milan, Ajax and Lyon — with the latter seeing their chances of joining the qualifiers dashed by a controversial 2-0 home loss to Ajax.

The French side could count themselves to be very unlucky not to have gone in at half-time level at 1-1 when a perfectly good goal by Brazilian Sonny Anderson was mistakenly adjudged by the Greek referee Kyros Vassaras not to have crossed the line.

However the French champions — who trail Inter and Ajax by a point — can book their place in the next round with victory over Norwegian outfit Rosenborg in the final match.

However the Frenchmen were livid at the penalty which handed Dortmund their second goal.

David Seaman was adjudged to have fouled Jan Koller who was clean through on goal and despite protests that the Czech had dived over the England goalkeeper, referee Manuel Gonzalez pointed to the spot and Tomas Rosicky converted the kick.

Wednesday’s results: