Inter and Barca seal passage to last 16
Jose Mourinho is under pressure to deliver European success to Inter
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By Adam Leveridge. |  |
Thursday, 10, Dec 2009 01:12
By Matt Fortune
Inter Milan and Barcelona both avoided embarrasing early exits from the Champions League, although the pair were forced to work harder than they might have hoped.
Jose Mourinho's Inter, with just four European goals and one win in their last seven San Siro outings, nudged into the knockout stages courtesy of a 2-0 win over Russian champions Rubin Kazan in Group F. Former Barcelona front man Samuel Eto'o got the ball rolling shortly after the half-hour before a ferocious free-kick by Marco Ballotelli wrapped up the win.
In the Ukraine, defending champions Barcelona had to come from behind to earn top spot in the group. The Spaniards were stunned by Dynamo Kiev after just two minutes through Artem Milevskiy but hit back through Xavi after 33 minutes. The pre-tournament favourites grabbed the winner after the break through Ballon D'Or winner Lionel Messi's gloriously struck free-kick.
The story of the night, though, came in Belgium where goalkeeper Sinan Bolat headed an equaliser five minutes into injury-time as Standard Liege snatched a place in the Europa League from opponents AZ Alkmaar. He became the second stopper in as many nights to get their name on the scoresheet after Bayern Munich's Hans Butt notched against Juventus on Tuesday.
In Group G Stuttgart, who sacked manager Marcus Babbel earlier this week, needed to beat Unirea Urziceni to make it into the last 16 behind Sevila. And they all but secured victory in the first 11 minutes.
Ciprian Marica slotted home after five minutes, Christian Trasch grabbed the second three minutes later and Pavel Pogrebniak the third in the 11th minute. The frighteners were put up the Germans shortly after the interval when Unirea snatched one back, although it proved to be nothing more than a consolation.