LONDON, 14 April 2005 — AC Milan, provisionally, and Chelsea, definitely, reached the Champions League semifinals on Tuesday night when Italian fans disgraced European soccer.
Milan’s match against archrivals Inter Milan at their shared San Siro home was abandoned after 73 minutes when Milan’s Brazilian keeper Dida was hit by one of dozens of flares thrown by Inter fans angry that a goal was disallowed minutes earlier.
AC Milan were winning 1-0 with 17 minutes to play and were 3-0 ahead on aggregate in the quarterfinal tie.
A UEFA spokesman told Reuters the result would stand “provisionally,” adding: “the referee and the match delegate have provisionally declared the result a 1-0 win to Milan.
Meanwhile, Inter Milan can expect severe punishment when UEFA meet tomorrow to decide what action to take over the abandoned Champions League quarterfinal second leg against city rivals AC Milan.
UEFA said yesterday its disciplinary body would meet at 1200 GMT tomorrow. The body will have to decide on the result of the game and will handle any ban, suspension or fine related to the crowd disorder.
UEFA could order the second leg to be replayed or just the last 17 minutes but precedent suggests AC Milan will be awarded victory and Inter handed a very heavy fine or a suspension and a banning order. Chelsea also encountered more turbulence than expected in Munich but at least it was confined to the pitch where they lost 3-2 to two late goals in the last European match played in the Olympic Stadium as Bayern will be in a new home next season.
However, Chelsea went through to the last four of the competition 6-5 on aggregate and will now meet either Juventus or Liverpool in the semifinals. Milan, probably, will face either PSV Eindhoven or Olympique Lyon in the last four if, as expected, UEFA award them the tie.
It is the second time a Champions League match has been abandoned in Italy this season after AS Roma’s Group B game against Dynamo Kiev on Sept. 15 was called off at halftime because referee Anders Frisk was hit by an object thrown from the crowd.
Kiev, who had been leading 1-0, were awarded a 3-0 win by UEFA and Roma were told to play their next two European home games behind closed doors.
Dida was hit by one of scores of flares that were thrown down by Inter supporters after the disallowing of a header from Inter midfielder Esteban Cambiasso and German referee Markus Merk was forced to take the players off the field. Following a wait of over 20 minutes, the match restarted with Dida replaced in goal by Christian Abbiati but after just 30 seconds more flares and bottles were hurled down from the second tier of the North Stand, home to Inter’s hardcore ultras.
Merk immediately whistled to end the game and Milan’s players had to race towards the tunnel as more missiles rained down.
Although Bayern Munich won the second leg of their quarterfinal 3-2, Chelsea scraped through 6-5 on aggregate.
Bayern, seeking to overturn their first-leg defeat in their 100th Champions League match, had three good chances to score in the first half.
However, the only goal before the break was scored by Frank Lampard, whose 30-metre shot took a sharp deflection off Lucio with the ball squirming past Oliver Kahn and into the net.
Chelsea’s opening goal from Joe Cole in last week’s first leg in London also took a deflection off the Brazilian defender.
