Chelsea 1-0 Juventus
Everything hangs in the balance in this tie, after Didier Drogba fired Chelsea into a narrow lead heading back to Italy in a fortnight. Drogba turned home Salomon Kalou’s ball in the 13th minute, but the Old Lady of Italian football gave Chelsea some trouble, notably when Petr Cech was forced to turn away an Alessandro Del Piero shot and Pavel Nedved went close late on.
Juventus are a formidable team at home, despite losing to an English opponent there in the Quarterfinals in their last foray in the Champions League. The tie is precariously poised ahead of the second leg. New Chelsea boss Guus Hiddink is now two-for-two in charge of Chelsea.
Real Madrid 0-1 Liverpool
Yossi Benayoun continued a nice vein of form in Liverpool’s colors, ensuring his side return home with a well deserved 1-0 reverse at the Bernabeu in Madrid.
A certainly normal looking Meringues side was unable to cope with Liverpool’s craft, but looked likely to pull a goalless draw until Benayoun headed home.
Liverpool were without Steven Gerrard for the first leg, and star forward Fernando Torres looked hobbled for some of the evening. Still, it didn’t appear to matter as a makeshift squad dominated the encounter.
Villarreal 1-1 Panathinaikos
Giuseppe Rossi managed an equalizer from the penalty spot to leave this tie of unfavoured Champion’s League contenders all equal heading to Athens in two weeks time.
Panathinaikos had gained an early advantage after Giorgos Karagounis snuck a shot into the top of Villarreal’s goal, but gave away a penalty shortly thereafter when Robert Pires’ was hauled down in the penalty area.
Villarreal, and particularly Rossi, wasted many chances to gain an advantage, and are now fearful that a goalless draw will see them out of the competition thanks to the away goal rule.
Sporting Lisbon 0-5 Bayern Munich
Bayern Munich are all but certainly heading to the Quarterfinal draw with a five star thumping of Lisbon.
Franck Ribery and Luca Toni both bagged a brace, and Miroslav Klose had the other to see Bayern score in their 13th straight Champions League away match.
The tie was never in doubt once Ribery forced his way through the Lisbon defense and slotted home to put his team up. Then on 57 minutes Klose got on the board after help from Toni. After that it was no longer if Munich would win, but how many would they have.
Lisbon are now faced with the unlikely task of hitting six goals at the Allianz Arena in Munich in the second leg.
