Champions League Final 16 — Juventus Roma Inter And Then There Were Three

Atop Group A Roma have def­i­nitely turned the right cor­ner with a renewed march toward this year’s Cham­pi­ons League final again pos­si­ble.  After a ter­ri­ble start to their domes­tic sea­son and the shock­ing open­ing  loss to CFR Cluj in the Group stage, all is for­given by Roman­ista fans with Roma’s rever­sal of the group opener beat­ing Roman­ian side Cluj 3–1 Wednes­day evening.  Roma will have to win or draw against Bor­deaux in two weeks if they hope to move on but with their recent string of vic­to­ries momen­tum has finally swung in favor of the Giallorossi.

Qual­i­fi­ca­tion to the last 16 by Inter­nazionale was not as glam­orous los­ing to vis­i­tors Panathi­naikos 0 — 1.   Inter still sit first in Group B on 8 points. The sec­ond and third place teams in group B, Panathi­naikos and Anortho­sis Fam­a­gusta, meet in the final group encounter with the vic­tor being the sec­ond team to qual­ify from Group B. Panathi­naikos will have the upper-hand need­ing only a point at home to Fam­a­gusta in two weeks time to join Inter, yet the Ital­ians now need a result, pos­si­bly even a vic­tory, away to Werder Bre­men or risk fail­ing to top Group B.

Tues­day evening saw the first Ital­ian club elim­i­nated when Fiorentina lost to French side Lyon at home 1 — 2.  Juven­tus of Turin have already qual­i­fied for the last 16 and drew 0 — 0 away to Zenit St. Peters­burg also on Tuesday.

The three remain­ing Ital­ian con­tenders can all fin­ish group lead­ers if Roma beat Bor­deaux, Inter beat Werner Bre­men and if Juven­tus draw with Bate Borisov in their final group clashes.

UEFA.com Mag­a­zine Match­day 5 Part I Interviews

Once again UEFA.com Mag­a­zine has sup­plied us with some fan­tas­tic matchday-5 player inter­views.  Lis­ten to Alex Man­ninger, Olof Mel­berg, Mohamed Sis­soko, Luca Toni, Fabio Grosso and Sebas­t­ian Frey dis­cuss matchday-5 results.

(click on image for video interview)

UEFA.com Mag­a­zine Match­day 5 Part II Interviews

Inter Milan man­ager Jose Mour­inho gives his opin­ion on the per­for­mance of Panathi­naikos

(click on image for video interview)

Related Arti­cles

mcal­cio — CFR Cluj 1–3 Roma: Gial­lorossi Back in the Dri­ver Seat
channel4 Foot­ball Italia — We must learn les­son, says Moratti
AFP — Inter through despite Panathi­naikos shock
Cham­pi­ons League Talk — Cham­pi­ons League Match­day 5 Preview

Tagged as: Champions League, Fiorentina, Inter, Italian Football, Jose Mourinho, Juventus, Massimo Moratti, Roma