2. EUROPE: Barca and Roma grab spots in round of 16

• by Soccer America , Dec 5, 2006

Barcelona quickly put to rest about doubts about whether it would become the first defending champion to be eliminated in the group phase of the UEFA Champions League. The Catalan club got goals from Ronaldinho (free kick under the leaping wall) and Eidur Gudjohnsen (header off Ludovic Giuly cross) in the first 19 minutes and cruised to a 2-0 victory over Werder Bremen on the final day of Group A play.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE SCOREBOARD
Tuesday, Dec. 5
Group A
*Chelsea 2 (Shevchenko 27, Wright-Phillips 83) Levski Sofia 0.
*Barcelona 2 (Ronaldinho 13, Gudjohnsen 18) Werder Bremen 0.
Group B
*Bayern Munich 1 (Makaay 62) *Inter Milan 1 (Vieira 90).
Sporting Lisbon 1 (Bueno (31) Spartak Moscow 3 (Pavlyuchenko 7, Kalinichenko 16, Boyarintsev 89).
Group C
Galatasaray 3 (Necati 24, Okan 28, Ilic 79) *Liverpool 2 (Fowler 22, 90).
*PSV 1 (Alex 87) Bordeaux 3 (Faubert 7, Dalmat 25, Darcheville 37).
Group D
*Roma 1 (Panucci 13) *Valencia 0.
Olympiakos 1 (Castillo 54) Shakhtar Donetsk 1 (Matuzalem 27).
*Qualifies for round of 16.

Barcelona needed to win to advance to the round of 16 in February. Bremen, which moves into the UEFA Cup, would have gone through with a win or tie. Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard praised his players' focus. "We started very well and took our chances," he said. "It was important that Werder began a little timidly and maybe they felt the pressure more than us."

Barcelona, which finished behind Chelsea, a 2-0 winner over Levski Sofia, and Roma secured the final two berths up for grabs in the next round on Tuesday. Roma, needing only a tie, reached the knockout phase for the first time with a 1-0 win over Valencia thanks to Christian Panucci's header in the 13th minute.

The final three berths will be decided on Wednesday. Manchester United will clinch the second berth in Group F if it beats or ties Benfica. The Lisbon club advances with a win at Old Trafford. Arsenal, Porto and CSKA Moscow remain alive in Group G. Arsenal and Porto are tied for first place with 10 points each going into Wednesday's game in Oporto. For CSKA, the newly crowned Russian champion, its only hope of advancing is a win at Hamburg and a Porto-Arsenal draw. In Group H, French club Lille's only hope of overtaking second-place AEK Athens is if it does better at AC Milan than AEK does against Anderlecht in Brussels -- ie., it wins and AEK ties or loses, or it ties and AEK loses.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE TV
Wednesday, Dec. 5
(All times ET)
Group E
ESPN Deportes & Setanta Sports USA DYNAMO KIEV-REAL MADRID (delay), 5 pm.
Group F
ESPN2 MANCHESTER UTD.-BENFICA (live), 2:30 pm.
Closed Circuit/PPV FC COPENHAGEN-CELTIC (Setanta, live), 2:30 pm.
Group G
ESPN Classic & Setanta Sports USA PORTO-ARSENAL (delay), 5 pm.
Group H
European Classic & Setanta Sports USA AC MILAN-LILLE (delay), 11 pm.