Roma
LONDON, Feb 27: European champions Bayern Munich and rivals Manchester United closed in on the Champions League quarterfinals Tuesday with contrasting wins over Boavista and Nantes in group A of the competition’s second phase.
Bayern needed an 81st minute header from Paraguayan Roque Santa Cruz to beat Boavista 1-0, while United crushed Nantes 5-1 at Old Trafford.
Tuesday’s games were an immediate reversal of last week’s matches when Boavista held Bayern to a 0-0 draw at home as Nantes drew 1-1 with Manchester United in France.
While United and Bayern have opened a gap at the top of group A, group B is far more even.
AS Roma replaced Barcelona at the top of those standings with a 3-0 home win over the Catalan side, while Galatasaray were held to a 1-1 home draw by Liverpool.
Last week Barcelona and Roma drew 1-1 while Liverpool and Galatasaray drew 0-0 at Anfield.
Roma now top the group with six points from their four matches, followed by Barcelona (5), Galatasaray (4) and Liverpool (3).
That group is so tight that even though neither Galatasaray nor Liverpool have yet won a match, they could still both go through if they both win their last two games.
Tuesday’s results in group A left Manchester United top of the standings with eight points from four matches, the same as second-placed Bayern. United lead the group after drawing 1-1 at Bayern in November with the sides clashing in their next match on March 13 at Old Trafford.
Boavista have four points and bottom club Nantes one. Defeat Tuesday means Nantes are eliminated.
Although United and Bayern are four points clear of Boavista with two matches to play neither can afford any slip-ups.
If Boavista won their last two games at Nantes and home to Manchester United, and if either United or Bayern lost their last two games, Boavista could steal into the top two positions.
That is not beyond their powers. They made Bayern fight all the way for victory on Tuesday, and the European champions only made sure of all three points nine minutes from time when Santa Cruz headed home a cross from Bixente Lizarazu nine minutes from time.
Bayern had squandered a number of scoring chances before that, but as coach Ottmar Hitzfeld said afterwards: “Boavista are a tough team to play against. Their defence is well organised and they are very aggressive. I think we deserved to win. It was a big step towards the quarter-finals.”
In contrast Manchester United had an easy win over Nantes despite falling behind in the 17th minute when Frederic Da Rocha put the French side ahead.
United were level a minute later when David Beckham scored direct from a free-kick, and two headers from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, celebrating his 29th birthday, and one each from Mikael Silvestre and Ruud van Nistelrooy, who rammed home a 64th minute penalty for his 30th goal of the season, gave United an emphatic 5-1 success.
That was the Dutchman’s eighth Champions League goal of the season putting him joint-top of the scoring chart alongside David Trezeguet of Juventus.
Roma were the other big winners of the night, beating Barcelona 3-0 with all three goals coming in the second half.
There was a touch of good fortune about their first, which Emerson diverted home after a rasping shot from Vincent Candela in the 60th minute, while substitute Vincenzo Montella scored a fine individual goal to make it 2-0 13 minutes later.
Damiano Tommasi completed the scoring with an 18-metre drive that gave Jose Manuel Reina no chance just before the end.
It was Barcelona’s first defeat in Italy against an Italian side.
Galatasaray and Liverpool drew 1-1 in Istanbul with both sides scoring late in the game.
England striker Emile Heskey secured the draw for Liverpool with a 78th minute goal after the English club were outplayed for most of the game by Mircea Lucescu’s depleted squad.
New Romanian signing Radu Niculescu opened the scoring for Galatasaray in the 70th minute, while Galatasaray goalkeeper Faryd Mondragon, whose fine form was crucial in denying Liverpool a goal in England last week, made several fine interceptions and young midfielder Berkant Goktan had an impressive game controlling much of the midfield play.
Champions League action continues on Wednesday when Panathinaikos play Sparta Prague and Porto face Real Madrid in group C and Arsenal play Bayer Leverkusen with Deportivo Coruna facing Juventus in group D.—Reuters