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Half of the Champions League teams finished the battles in the group stage on Tuesday - after playing the last matches of the sixth round, it became clear that the title of the tournament's winner will be defended by last season's winner "Barcelona", who defeated "Werder" club in the competition for entry into the quarterfinals in group A, while "Roma" team won the second ticket from group D, also securing their progress with a victory. The titles of the winners in groups A and B were won by "Chelsea" and "Bayern", Eastern European clubs "Spartak" and "Shakhtar" made it to the UEFA Europa League, while in group C two leaders experienced inconclusive failures.
In the central evening match, last season's strongest European team "Barcelona" met the victim of the group stage "Werder".
For Barcelona to advance to the quarterfinals, victory was necessary, and they took control of the opponents' goal from the very first minutes of the match. The goal was not long in coming. In the 13th minute, a penalty kick was awarded from the edge of the penalty area. Barcelona's penalty kick expert Ronaldinho cleverly struck the ball into the goal. The Brazilian, instead of passing the ball through the wall of players, struck it low. This decision proved to be successful - Bremen defenders jumped up, and the ball, passing under their legs, ended up in the goal - 1-0.
Just 5 minutes later, Barcelona doubled their lead, scoring a controversial goal. After a long pass by Ronaldinho, home team forward Eidur Gudjohnsen found himself in a passive offside position, but the linesman did not pay attention to it. Meanwhile, Ludovic Giuly, who received the ball, passed it to the unmarked Icelander in the penalty area, who effortlessly lobbed the ball past the visiting goalkeeper Tim Wiese.
Shortly after, L. Giuly missed the target completely.
In the 36th minute, Deco broke through the middle of the field and passed the ball to E. Gudjohnsen. He, deceiving several defenders, hit the crossbar, and L. Giuly, the first to the ball, missed the empty goal.
At the end of the first half, the Germans also had their chances - after Naldo's penalty kick, the ball flew just wide of the post, and after a pass from Pierre Wome from the left flank, the ball almost reached Miroslav Klose at the far post.
After the break, Werder tried to attack the opponents' goal and created several dangerous moments, but the hosts responded with dangerous counterattacks, and in the 57th minute, after one assault, E. Gudjohnsen, somewhat off balance, shot straight at the goalkeeper.
In the 61st minute, after a pass from Bremen's goalkeeper Daniel Jensen into the penalty area, the ball, unexpectedly changing direction, hit the crossbar.
As the match neared its end, Werder, having nothing to lose, began to display attractive attacking football, but Barcelona maintained their lead and entered the Champions League quarterfinals.
The Bremen "Werder" footballers, who earned 10 points and deserved the sympathy of many fans, were left out of the knockout stage and will have to settle for participation in the UEFA Europa League.
In other Group A matches, London's "Chelsea" defeated Sofia's "Levski" 2-0 at home and secured the top spot in the group. The new purchase of the London club, Ukrainian Andriy Shevchenko, scored his first goal of the season in the Champions League in the first half and 44th in his career.
In a packed "Allianz" stadium in Munich, the local "Bayern" and Milan's "Inter" fought for the title of the winner of Group B. After a balanced first half, at the beginning of the second half both teams exchanged very dangerous attacks. In the 50th minute, a shot by Walter Samuel from a few meters was blocked by Oliver Kahn, and a few minutes later, a shot from 15 meters by Mark van Bommel from the host's side went wide of the post.
In the 62nd minute, the first goal fell. After a pass from Hasan Salihamidzic, "Bayern" striker from the Netherlands Roy Makaay directed the ball into the goal.
Shortly after, defenders of the Munich club Andreas Ottl and Philipp Lahm took dangerous shots from a distance.
Just when it seemed that the hosts would secure victory, the Italians equalized the score in stoppage time - after Kahn blocked a shot by F. Grosso, "Inter" veteran Patrick Vieira rushed to the ball and directed it into the goal - 1-1. The draw guaranteed "Bayern" the first place in the group.
Meanwhile, in Lisbon, "Sporting" unexpectedly lost 1-3 to Moscow's "Spartak" team. Already in the 7th minute, a great shot was scored by the away team's forward Roman Pavlyuchenko. After 10 minutes, the score was doubled with a precise header by Maxym Kalinichenko. Carlos Bueno softened the lead in the 31st minute.
At the end of the match, the Portuguese pressed the Russians, who responded with dangerous attacks and secured victory at the same time - after a ricochet, Denis Boyarintsev scored the third goal, which meant that "Spartak" was heading to the UEFA Europa League.
In Group C, Doneck's "Shakhtar" played 1-1 away with Piraeus' "Olympiacos". And although the Ukrainian club ended their series of 8 consecutive losses in the Champions League on the road, they will have to settle for UEFA Europa League.
"Roma" took revenge at home with a 1-0 win against Spain's "Valencia" for their loss in the 2nd round (1-2). The only goal of the match was scored in the 13th minute by the captain of the Italian club Christian Panucci, who "head over heels" almost from the goal line directed the ball into the net.
The injury-riddled "Valencia" relied more on reserve players. However, this defeat still guaranteed the first place in the group for the Spaniards.
Tuesday's match statistics
Group A
Chelsea 2 - 0 Levski
Barcelona 2 - 0 Werder
Group B
Bayern 1 - 1 Inter
Bordeaux 1 - 3 Spartak
Group C
Liverpool 3 - 2 Galatasaray
PSV 1 - 3 Bordeaux
Group D
Roma 1 - 0 Valencia
Shakhtar 1 - 1 Olympiacos
