LONDON, 24 February 2005 — Bayern Munich and Liverpool, seemingly coasting to 3-0 victories in the Champions League on Tuesday, were hit by late goals that could seriously damage their progress to the quarterfinals in two weeks’ time.

Liverpool, 3-0 up against Bayer Leverkusen at Anfield, conceded a sloppy goal after a mistake by keeper Jerzy Dudek three minutes into stoppage time to give the Germans hope.

In a mirror image of what happened at Anfield, Bayern Munich were leading 3-0 against Arsenal in the other Anglo-German clash with time almost up when Kolo Toure pulled one back for the English champions with just a minute left of normal time.

Now, instead of facing almost impossible tasks, Leverkusen and Arsenal would go through to the last eight with 2-0 wins in their home legs. Tuesday’s other first knockout round, first leg matches also ended in home wins with PSV Eindhoven beating last season’s losing finalists AS Monaco 1-0 and Real Madrid defeating Juventus by the same score at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium.

A first half header from Ivan Helguera gave Real victory over their old Italian rivals but Raul, bidding to become the first player to score 50 goals in European competition, just missed out when he hit the bar in the first half.

That tie is finely balanced, as is the one between PSV and Monaco, settled by an eighth minute header from the Eindhoven side’s Brazilian centre back Alex.

Bayern Munich scored the first Champions League goal with the competition resuming after the winter break with just four minutes played at the Olympic Stadium. Claudio Pizarro scored it by volleying a low shot past Arsenal’s German goalkeeper Jens Lehmann after a mistake by defender Kolo Toure, who headed a long clearance from Lehmann’s national team rival Oliver Kahn straight into Pizarro’s path.

The Peruvian headed Bayern 2-0 ahead after 58 minutes before Arsenal’s defense crumbled six minutes later allowing Bosnian midfielder Hasan Salihamidzic to pick his spot for the third.

Liverpool were similarly in command at Anfield against Leverkusen, despite being hampered by the absence of their suspended skipper Steven Gerrard.

Spaniard Luis Garcia put the home side ahead after only 15 minutes before free kicks from Norwegian John Arne Riise (35th) and German Dietmar Hamann (90+2) appeared to wrap up an emphatic victory.

Late Wins for America,

The ‘U’ in Libertadores

In Rio De Janeiro, America and Universidad de Chile both scored late goals to win their Libertadores Cup matches on Tuesday.

Edier Londono snapped up a rebound in the 86th minute as America beat Independiente Medellin 1-0 in their all-Colombian clash in Cali, while the “U” beat Argentina’s Quilmes 3-2 courtesy of an injury-time winner from Cristian Martinez.

The win took four-time runners-up America top of the Group One with six points from their opening two games while their opponents are third with one. America substitute Yovanny Arrechea and Medellin defender Jair Benitez were sent off in the last minute as tempers boiled over.