Holders Manchester United soothed a painful old wound for Sir Alex Ferguson by knocking Inter Milan out of the Champions League on Wednesday.
Holders Manchester United soothed a painful old wound for Sir Alex Ferguson by knocking Inter Milan out of the Champions League on Wednesday, as Barcelona mauled Olympique Lyon 5-2 in a thrilling return to form.
Arsenal made it four English teams in the quarterfinals for the second successive year, their youngsters showing great composure to see them home 7-6 on penalties away to AS Roma. The Stadio Olimpico in Rome will be the stage for the final in May and few would bet against at least one English team being there. United and Arsenal joined Liverpool and Chelsea, who scored contrasting wins on Tuesday, when Bayern Munich and Villarreal also came through.
If Tuesday’s games were marked by wrecking-ball performances from Liverpool, who stunned Real Madrid 4-0, and Bayern, who beat Sporting 7-1 to notch up a record 12-1 aggregate victory, Wednesday’s ties provided much more subtlety and tension.
United beat Inter 2-0 at Old Trafford thanks to headers from Nemanja Vidic and Cristiano Ronaldo. The result gave United a record of 21 matches unbeaten in European competitions and made it a satisfying night for Ferguson against his old nemesis Jose Mourinho. Five years ago Mourinho danced up the Old Trafford touchline after his Porto team pulled off a shock victory on their way to winning the 2004 Champions League. Mourinho continued to get the better of Ferguson on a regular basis after taking over at Chelsea and there were times on Wednesday when it looked like being a familiar story.
Vidic’s early goal still left Inter needing just one goal to edge ahead. Inter continued to look the better side at the start of the second half before the deftest of chips from England striker Wayne Rooney set up Ronaldo to settle the tie.
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