Reds dethrone Barca

PARIS – Rafael Benitez may not have delivered the Premiership title to Liverpool yet but on Tuesday he moved closer to landing a second Champions League as his side dethroned titleholders Barcelona.

The 2005 champions lost 1-0 at home to the Catalonians but went through on the away goals rule as the last 16 tie ended 2-2 on aggregate. Jose Mourinho, who has also tasted Champions League success, saw his Chelsea side come from 1-0 down to beat FC Porto, the team he took to Europe’s premier trophy, 2-1 and 3-2 on aggregate.Benitez, a calm but authoritarian character, would not have been too happy with the manner in which his former side Valencia celebrated their overall victory over runaway Italian leaders Inter Milan – 0-0 on the night and 2-2 on aggregate giving them the win on away goals.Valencia’s Carlos Marchena and Nicolas Burdisso of Inter exchanged blows on the final whistle and the Italian player’s miserable night ended with an apparent broken nose when David Navarro decided to punch him as well.Inter’s sadness was in stark contrast to AS Roma’s, who may have all but surrendered the title to Inter with a recent bad run of form, as they ended former Liverpool boss Gerard Houllier’s eternal search for the Holy Grail of European club football.Roma got over having an early goal ruled out to prevail 2-0 over five-time French champions Lyon and inflict the French side’s first home Champions League defeat since Ajax won there in October 2002.Benitez is never one to play the typecast emotional southern European and he was no different after outbattling his opposite number Franck Rijkaard.”I don’t like to talk about battles between managers, it is all about the players,” Benitez insisted.”Over the two legs we were really good against a very good team and maybe for the future we will have more confidence.”For his outstanding central defender Jamie Carragher, a Scouser through and through, there was no hesitation at where this win stood despite the memorable night when they beat AC Milan to take the trophy.”The biggest win I think we have experienced is this one tonight,” admitted Carragher, who has shown little sign of bearing the effects of missing a penalty in the World Cup quarter-final shootout defeat to Portugal last summer.”Even though we knocked them out they are the best team in the world still.”Mourinho said that he had remained cool even when Chelsea looked like going out but a half-time chat had changed things around.”I had a difficult half time because we were out at that moment,” said the Portuguese master of psychological games.”Psychologically I made them think a little bit.I told them we are out of the competition, so what do we do? Enjoy it or be scared of it? “If we are scared we are out, if we can enjoy then let’s play and enjoy being under pressure.Sometimes it is possible to enjoy these moments and show our quality.”European governing body Uefa will not have enjoyed seeing the images of the end of match fracas between Valencia and Inter which could well have ramifications.However from the parties concerned there was little comment.”I’m not going to discuss things I didn’t see as I was heading towards the changing rooms,” commented Valencia coach Quique Sanchez Flores.By contrast Roma coach Luciano Spalletti was proud of his players that they did not react to extreme provocation from the increasingly frustrated Lyon players – Brazilian international striker Fred’s elbow of Roma’s Romanian international captain Christian Chivu being the worst of them.”The team were perfect and showed a maturity which they have not displayed over the past few years,” he said.”Especially that they did not react to the provocations from their opponents.”He and Uefa will hope this is the spirit displayed by all the sides for the rest of the tournament.Nampa-AFPJose Mourinho, who has also tasted Champions League success, saw his Chelsea side come from 1-0 down to beat FC Porto, the team he took to Europe’s premier trophy, 2-1 and 3-2 on aggregate.Benitez, a calm but authoritarian character, would not have been too happy with the manner in which his former side Valencia celebrated their overall victory over runaway Italian leaders Inter Milan – 0-0 on the night and 2-2 on aggregate giving them the win on away goals.Valencia’s Carlos Marchena and Nicolas Burdisso of Inter exchanged blows on the final whistle and the Italian player’s miserable night ended with an apparent broken nose when David Navarro decided to punch him as well.Inter’s sadness was in stark contrast to AS Roma’s, who may have all but surrendered the title to Inter with a recent bad run of form, as they ended former Liverpool boss Gerard Houllier’s eternal search for the Holy Grail of European club football.Roma got over having an early goal ruled out to prevail 2-0 over five-time French champions Lyon and inflict the French side’s first home Champions League defeat since Ajax won there in October 2002.Benitez is never one to play the typecast emotional southern European and he was no different after outbattling his opposite number Franck Rijkaard.”I don’t like to talk about battles between managers, it is all about the players,” Benitez insisted.”Over the two legs we were really good against a very good team and maybe for the future we will have more confidence.”For his outstanding central defender Jamie Carragher, a Scouser through and through, there was no hesitation at where this win stood despite the memorable night when they beat AC Milan to take the trophy.”The biggest win I think we have experienced is this one tonight,” admitted Carragher, who has shown little sign of bearing the effects of missing a penalty in the World Cup quarter-final shootout defeat to Portugal last summer.”Even though we knocked them out they are the best team in the world still.”Mourinho said that he had remained cool even when Chelsea looked like going out but a half-time chat had changed things around.”I had a difficult half time because we were out at that moment,” said the Portuguese master of psychological games.”Psychologically I made them think a little bit.I told them we are out of the competition, so what do we do? Enjoy it or be scared of it? “If we are scared we are out, if we can enjoy then let’s play and enjoy being under pressure.Sometimes it is possible to enjoy these moments and show our quality.”European governing body Uefa will not have enjoyed seeing the images of the end of match fracas between Valencia and Inter which could well have ramifications.However from the parties concerned there was little comment.”I’m not going to discuss things I didn’t see as I was heading towards the changing rooms,” commented Valencia coach Quique Sanchez Flores.By contrast Roma coach Luciano Spalletti was proud of his players that they did not react to extreme provocation from the increasingly frustrated Lyon players – Brazilian international striker Fred’s elbow of Roma’s Romanian international captain Christian Chivu being the worst of them.”The team were perfect and showed a maturity which they have not displayed over the past few years,” he said.”Especially that they did not react to the provocations from their opponents.”He and Uefa will hope this is the spirit displayed by all the sides for the rest of the tournament.Nampa-AFP