AC Milan, Villarreal reach Champions League semifinals
AC Milan was on the verge of exiting the Champions League before Filippo Inzaghi came to the rescue.
AC Milan was on the verge of exiting the Champions League before Filippo Inzaghi came to the rescue.
Inzaghi scored a pair of goals, including a go-ahead strike in the 88th minute, to send Milan to the Champions League semifinal with a 3-1 triumph over Lyon at the San Siro.
Andriy Shevchenko set up the go-ahead goal and iced the contest with a tally three minutes into stoppage time for Milan, which lost in the final to Liverpool last year.
In the semifinals, Milan will face either Barcelona or Benfica, who play Wednesday after a scoreless first leg in Portugal last week.
Milan's rival Internazionale crashed out of the competition following a 1-0 loss at Villarreal. The teams played to a 2-2 aggregate score, but the Spanish club moved on to the semifinals on the away-goals rule.
Villarreal next will play either Arsenal or Juventus, who meet Wednesday in Turin, Italy. The Gunners posted a 2-0 triumph in London last week.
After a scoreless first leg in France last week, Inzaghi gave the hosts the lead by heading in a cross from Clarence Seedorf in the 25th minute. But Mahamadou Diarra tied the game six minutes later with a header of his own, and Lyon appeared as though it would reach the semifinals for the first time on the away-goals tiebreaker after blanking Milan for the majority of the contest.
But in the 88th minute, Shevchenko was left unmarked in the right side of the area and fired a sharply angled shot that Lyon goalkeeper Gregory Coupet deflected with his right hand. The ball bounced off the left and right posts before Inzaghi tapped it into the open net.
Five minutes later, Shevchenko stole a back pass and beat Coupet to make it 3-1 and send Milan through. It was his ninth goal in 10 games in the competition.
Villarreal scored the only goal of its second leg against Inter at El Madrigal when Juan Roman Riquelme's free kick drifted into the box in the 58th minute, and as the Inter defense remained static, Rodolfo Arruabarrena glanced a header past Francesco Toldo.