LONDON, 3 November 2005 — Real Madrid and Olympique Lyon became the first teams to qualify for the last 16 of the Champions League on Tuesday while European champions Liverpool took a giant stride toward joining them.
Seemingly omnipotent Chelsea however crashed to their first defeat of the season in regular time losing 1-0 at Real Betis in one of the night’s two upsets, the other coming in the Netherlands where PSV Eindhoven beat AC Milan by the same score.
Inter Milan though had a far better night than their neighbors, coming from behind to beat Porto 2-1.
Real, bidding this term for a record-extending 10th European Cup win back in Paris where they won the first competition 50 seasons ago, brushed Rosenborg aside 2-0 in Trondheim.
The victory came courtesy of a Mikael Dorsin own goal after 26 minutes and a second from Guti four minutes before the break.
There were no more goals in the second half but those strikes were enough to give Real victory and nine points from their four games leaving them second behind Lyon in Group F. The French champions were in fine form in Greece where they thumped Olympiakos Pireaus 4-1 with all their goals coming in 16 minutes on either side of halftime. Haruna Babangida put the Greeks ahead after only three minutes but Lyon stormed back with goals from Juninho Pernambucano four minutes before the break, followed by two from John Carew (44th and 57th) and one from Mahamadou Diarra (55).
Lyon (12 points) and Real (9) must finish first or second, leaving Rosenborg (3) and Olympiakos (0) battling it out for the UEFA Cup spot.
Liverpool also gave a performance worthy of their status as European champions with a 3-0 home win over Anderlecht at Anfield where the Belgians stretched their unwanted record of successive Champions League defeats to 11 matches.
Liverpool, who tend to reserve their best form for Europe, moved to the brink of qualification for the knockout stage from Group G with goals from Fernando Morientes (34th), Luis Garcia (61st) and Djibril Cisse (89th).
Liverpool top the group with 10 points, three clear of Chelsea (7) and four ahead of Real Betis (6) who stunned the English champions in Seville. Chelsea’s last defeat in regular playing time was 18 matches ago when they lost at Liverpool in the second leg of last season’s Champions League semifinal.
They therefore started as firm favorites to beat Betis following their 4-0 victory over the Spaniards in London two weeks ago.
But Betis, who had lost all four home European matches to English clubs in the past, gave a vastly improved performance, battling for every ball as well as riding their luck.
Their perseverance paid off when substitute Dani scored after 28 minutes and, although Chelsea went close to an equalizer 20 minutes from time when Michael Essien saw a shot hit both posts, Betis held on for three vital points.
The other surprise came at PSV where the home side beat Milan 1-0 for their second home win over the Italians this year.
Their 3-1 victory over Milan in the second leg of the semifinals last season was ultimately a hollow one as they went out on the away goals rule but this win has carried them to the top of Group E and in sight of the knockout rounds.
Jefferson Farfan scored the only goal after 12 minutes which lifted PSV up from third to top on seven points.
Milan, whose Dutch defender Jaap Stam saw red on his return to his homeland six minutes from time, are second with five points, the same as Schalke 04 who beat nine-man Fenerbahce 2-0 in Germany.
