A Knockout to Move to the Knockouts

Liverpool completed their incredible UEFA Champions League comeback with a 4-0 victory at Olympique de Marseille, catapulting themselves into the knockout phase thanks to an explosive start at the Stade Vélodrome. They were the first English team to beat the French side on their home field. On the other hand, French teams continued to self-destruct in European play. The French people rallied around Erik Gerets team seeing that despite Liverpool's early set back to Reading this week the Reds are rounding out into solid form. The crowd was hostile from the get-go as they hissed and booed every time a Merseysider would touch the ball. When Steven Gerrard smashed in a rebound off a penalty in the 4th minute the entire stadmium was in shock. By the time Fernando Torres scored seven minutes later, they knew it was all over.

"I would say it was a perfect night ... almost perfect, you always have things to improve." Rafa Benitez after the huge win.



Real Madrid CF advanced as well to the knockout phase of the UEFA Champions League as Group C winners following a comfortable 3-1 victory against S.S. Lazio at the Santiago Bernabéu. The Rome side needed to win to have any chance of progressing and their coach Delio Rossi appeared to have instilled sufficient belief in his players who matched Madrid in terms of possession and confidence on the ball in the early stages. But Bernd Schuster's side is not the tentative and offensively-challenged team of recent years. Julio Baptista, Raul Gonzalez, and Robinho scored all in the first half to give the home crowd plenty of comfort and fend off any Italian attacks. With the loss, Lazio, which is at the bottom of their group standings, was sent packing.