Barca and Sporting march on

BRUSSELS // Barcelona and Sporting Lisbon booked their spots in the Champions League knockout stages while Inter Milan missed out on the chance to guarantee their place last night. A 1-1 draw at home to Basel was enough for Barca to qualify from Group C alongside Portugal's Sporting, who beat Shakhtar Donetsk of the Ukraine 1-0 thanks to the Brazilian striker Derlei's 73rd minute strike. Serie A champions Inter needed an 80th minute header from the Argentine striker Julio Cruz to salvage a 3-3 draw in Cyprus against a resilient Anorthosis Famagusta.

Inter's draw, combined with Panathinaikos's 3-0 win at Werder Bremen, left Group B wide open with two matches to go. The Italians are top on eight points from four games, Anorthosis have five, Panathinaikos four and Werder three. Group A has a similarly tight look to it with Chelsea on seven, one point more than Roma and Girondins Bordeaux who beat CFR Cluj 2-1. The Romanians are nevertheless still in contention with four points.

In Group D Marseille beat PSV Eindhoven 3-0 thanks to goals from Bakari Kone and Mamadou Niang (2) to secure their first points in this year's competition. *Reuters

Anorthosis Famagusta 3 Inter Milan 3 Barcelona 1 Basel 1 CFR Cluj 1 Bordeaux 2 Liverpool 1 Atletico Madrid 1 Marseille 3 PSV Eindhoven 0 Roma 3 Chelsea 1 Sporting Lisbon 1 Shakhtar Donetsk 0 Werder Bremen 0 Panathinaikos 3