Arsenal, Real lose the battle but win Champions League qualifying war
Pirate Irwin Agence France-Presse Paris
No manager likes to lose, but both Arsenal's and Champions League holder Real Madrid's defeats on Wednesday had a sugar-coated edge as results elsewhere dictated they qualified for the second phase anyway.
Arsenal dived to its fourth successive loss -- equaling its worst sequence in 19 years -- losing 2-1 away at Borussia Dortmund, which also qualified while Real went down 1-0 at home to AS Roma but having beaten the Italians 3-0 in the opening match, the Spanish club has a better head to head record.
Arsenal progressed thanks to PSV Eindhoven's 3-0 victory over Auxerre, which imploded having two players sent-off.
Real's defeat could have come at an extra cost as French playmaker Zinedine Zidane had to leave the pitch early after a robust challenge by Brazilian Aldair left him with a heavily bruised thigh to add to his painful groin and right knee problem he went into the match with.
Roma, though, will have to wait as it hosts AEK Athens in a fortnight with a victory for the Greeks taking it through, but having been held to its fifth successive draw by Belgian outift Genk in Athens, the Italians should feel reasonably confident.
Real was joined by Spanish champion Valencia in the second phase after it deservedly beat Liverpool 1-0 away and left the English side perhaps needing to beat Swiss side Basel in their final match in a fortnight - provided Basel beat tailenders Spartak Moscow in their delayed match next week.
The only group still wide open involves the threeway tussle in Group D between Inter Milan, Ajax and Lyon - with the latter seeing their chances of joining the qualifiers dashed by a controversial 2-0 home loss to Ajax.
The French side could count itself to be very unlucky not to have gone in at half-time level at 1-1 when a perfectly good goal by Brazilian Sonny Anderson was mistakenly adjudged by the Greek referee Kyros Vassaras not to have crossed the line.
However the French champion -- which trails Inter and Ajax by a point - can book its place in the next round with victory over Norwegian outfit Rosenborg in the final match.
"That was a huge refereeing error and one scarcely credible at this level of football," stormed Lyon manager Paul Le Guen.
While Le Guen had good grounds to bemoan the refereeing, his Arsenal counterpart Arsene Wenger also laid into the man in black at the Dortmund match, though given the dominance of the German side he was perhaps being a little economical with the overall view of the clash.
However, the Frenchman was livid at the penalty which handed Dortmund its second goal.
David Seaman was adjudged to have fouled Jan Koller who was clean through on goal and despite protests that the Czech had dived over the England goalkeeper, referee Manuel Gonzalez pointed to the spot and Tomas Rosicky converted the kick.
"The referee scored a good goal and I hope he's happy," said Wenger.
"It was a good dive by Koller. But we knew Auxerre was losing, otherwise it would have been very frustrating to lose like that.
"We feel badly done by tonight," added Wenger.
While Wenger took defeat with little grace his compatriot and Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier was quite the opposite holding his hands up at losing his unbeaten home record to the better side.
"When you lose to a good side you have to put your hands up and say well done and that is what I'm doing today," Houllier said.
Inter coach Hector Cuper was unapologetic for playing three strikers in the 3-0 defeat of Rosenborg and the combative Argentine declared he would be willing to do the same in the do or die clash with Ajax in Amsterdam.
"We need the points and will be going all out for the win."