AC Milan, Chelsea advance to 2nd round
AC Milan's Andrea Pirlo (L) celebrates his goal against Benfica with his team mates during their Champions League Group D soccer match at Luz stadium in Lisbon Nov. 28, 2007Two other qualifying groups are wide open, however, and half of the last 16 won't be decided until next month's final games, with nine-time champion Real Madrid under pressure after a 3-2 loss at Werder Bremen.
Milan and Chelsea join FC Barcelona, Manchester United, AS Roma, Inter Milan, Sevilla and Arsenal, who all played Tuesday.
Andrea Pirlo's long-range shot put Milan ahead in the 15th minute in Lisbon, but Maxi Pereira equalized for Benfica in the 20th. Milan still went through because Celtic scored a last-minute goal to beat Shakhtar Donetsk 2-1 in Glasgow.
"We started very well in the first half, then they equalized and knowing that a draw would qualify us, we struggled at the end," Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti said.
Brandao gave Shakhtar the lead in the fourth minute, but Jiri Jarosik leveled for Celtic a minute before halftime and Massimo Donati scored the winning goal in the first minute of injury time.
Milan leads the group with 10 points and next faces Celtic, which has nine. Shakhtar has six points and hosts the already-eliminated Benfica, which has four.
Chelseas Didier Drogba (R) controls the ball during their Champions League Group B soccer match against Rosenborg at Lerkendal Stadium in Trondheim Nov. 28, 2007Didier Drogba scored the first two of Chelsea's goals at Rosenborg, giving the Blues 11 points from five games. Despite the heavy loss, Rosenborg stays second with seven points because Schalke and Valencia, which had David Albelda sent off in the first half, drew 0-0. Schalke, which hosts Rosenborg in two weeks time, has five points and Valencia, which visits Chelsea, has four.
"We played some good football tonight and scored four goals," Chelsea coach Avram Grant said. "We had a lot of chances but what is most important is that we qualified for the next round one game before the end."
Madrid trailed 3-1 at Werder Bremen after goals by Markus Rosenberg, Boubacar Sanogo and Aaron Hunt. Robinho replied for the Spanish champions in the 14th and Ruud van Nistelrooy added a second in the 72nd but the German club held on to stay alive and take its total to six points.
Madrid and Olympiakos have eight points after the Greek team beat Lazio 2-1 after trailing in Rome.
Goran Pandev put Lazio ahead, although the ball appeared to have gone out before the preceding cross. Luciano Galletti and Darko Kovacevic then scored to give the Greek champions a win and leave the Italian club with five points.
Liverpool eased some of the pressure on under-fire coach Rafa Benitez with a 4-1 victory over FC Porto to move closer to a place in the knockout round.
Fernando Torres scored twice at Anfield, where Reds fans staged a march to support Benitez, who is under pressure for speaking out about his row with owners George Gillett Jr. and Tom Hicks over funding for future player transfers.
Having failed to win their first three games, Liverpool now has seven points from five games in Group A, where any of the four teams can advance.
Benitez applauded the fans' support, and then expanded on the internal feuding.
"I just try to do my best for the club. I don't have any personal problems with the owners, Tom Hicks or George Gillett," Benitez said. "We were talking about the future of the club ... I was trying to improve my club and OK, maybe we need to wait, but it was a strange situation.
"But I don't need to go back or go forward."
Porto remains at the top with eight points despite the defeat at Anfield and Liverpool is even with Marseille, both with seven points. Marseille lost 2-1 at Besiktas, which has six.
In two weeks, Marseille hosts Liverpool, and Porto hosts Besiktas.
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