Soccer: Barcelona, Villareal in Spanish double

LONDON - Barcelona emerged triumphant from an epic struggle against Chelsea yesterday as Frank Rijkaard's men avenged last season's loss to Jose Mourinho's side to seal a place in the Champions League quarter-finals.

A superb individual goal from world footballer of the year Ronaldinho 12 minutes from time broke the deadlock in the Nou Camp and put Barca 3-1 ahead on aggregate.

The English champions saved themselves from defeat on the night when a Frank Lampard penalty with the last kick of the game made the score 1-1 - but Barcelona won 3-2 on aggregate.

Villarreal completed a winning Spanish double over British opposition by beating Rangers on away goals to take their place in the last eight of their first Champions League campaign.

The teams drew 2-2 in Glasgow two weeks ago and yesterday's match ended 1-1 to see Villarreal advance.

Peter Lovenkrands put Rangers ahead after 12 minutes but Rodolf Arruabarrena equalised in the 49th.

However, the game was not without trouble.

A window in the Villarreal team bus was broken when Scottish fans threw bottles and shouted insults as the players approached the Madrigal stadium and Spanish police arrested eight Britons in Benidorm following violence before the match started.

Reports said groups of Scottish fans hurled stones, bottles and glass at police.

Italian giants Juventus also made it through to the last eight on the away goals rule, helped on their way by a fortunate late goal that gave them a 2-1 victory over Werder Bremen and the slim advantage after a final 4-4 aggregate scoreline.

Werder won the first2 in Bremen and went 4-2 ahead on aggregate when Frenchman Johan Micoud struck early in the game.

But Juve battled back to score through David Trezeguet and Emerson, who slotted the ball into the empty net in the dying minutes after German keeper Tim Wiese fumbled a harmless-looking cross with just two minutes to play.

A bemused Wiese said: "It's just insane that that happened. It's unbelievable. But it happened and I have to move on. I wanted to make sure I had the ball tucked in securely and then ...

"Something like that will never happen again for the rest of my life. What can I say? It was a very stupid thing. I have to sleep over this and try to keep doing a good job."

Emerson said afterwards if it had not been for a shout from teammate Fabio Cannavaro he would not have scored.

The ball Wiese dropped was rolling out towards the Brazilian who was walking away from the penalty area and did not see it.

Emerson recalled: "It was Fabio that alerted me, he shouted 'Puma', 'Puma' and I just drove it in," said Emerson, referring to his nickname.

"It was luck but luck that we deserved."

After weeks of media hype and with the controversy of last year's match at the Nou Camp still fresh in the mind, Barcelona's clash with Chelsea was eagerly awaited by fans of both clubs and neutrals across the world.

In the event, and with Uefa warning both clubs they would be closely watching for any misdemeanours, the match passed without any noticeable controversy on the field.

Barca dominated for long periods and played some excellent football despite losing Argentine winger Lionel Messi early on.

Then with the clock running down Ronaldinho cut through the centre of Chelsea's defence, fending off a strong challenge from John Terry to shoot low and hard past Petr Cech. Lampard equalised from the penalty spot in stoppage time.

Champions League

Second leg ties today

Arsenal v Real Madrid
AC Milan v Bayern Munich
Olympique Lyon v PSV Eindhoven
Liverpool v Benfica

Next week

Inter Milan v Ajax Amsterdam
Final Paris, May 18

- REUTERS