Spanish soccer school celebrated Tuesday a phenomenal achievement as two of its prominent teams reached semifinal of European Champions League.
Barcelona produced a champion pedigree performance Tuesday night, conquering England's Chelsea 5-1 and thus qualifying them to play against fellow Spaniards Valencia in the semifinals.
Their semi-final opponents were sitting on an unlikely 5-2 lead for their second leg tie against Lazio, and despite losing 1-0 on the night eased through to the last four 5-3 on aggregate.
Barca, victorious 6-4 on aggregate, were dominant on the night but with Chelsea having won the quarter final first leg 3-1 in London at their packed Nou Camp arena.
Spain could have a third representative in the last four if Real Madrid come up trumps against Manchester United on Wednesday night with Bayern facing Portugal's FC Porto in the other last eight tie.
Barca took a 2-0 lead with first-half goals from Rivaldo and Luis Figo before Tore Andre Flo, thanks to a dreadful blunder from Barca keeper Ruud Hesp, pulled one back for Chelsea. Then Dani made it 3-1 on the night for the Spaniards and 4-4 on aggregate but Rivaldo missed a late penalty, forcing the match into extra-time.
Barca took the lead again after 98 minutes after a brilliant solo run by Figo was halted by an illegal challenge by Babayaro who was sent off. .
Creditably Rivaldo showed willing to take the penalty and this time made no mistake. Six minutes later Kluivert headed the ball past de Goey to make it 5-1 on the night and clinch the tie 6-4 on aggregate.
Chelsea midfielder Didier Deschamps said: "We've been beaten by a great side.... We were being too careful to protect our lead with a quarter of an hour to go."
Lazio's Juan Sebastian Veron broke the deadlock in Rome with a stunning 52nd minute drive from nearly 30 meters to ensure the Italian side went out heads high after dominating a tie they could have won by a bigger margin were it not for a mixture of bad luck and great goalkeeping by Valencia's Santiago Canizares.
Eight minutes into the extra period Chelsea's Nigerian defender Celestine Babayaro was sent off for fouling Figo and this time Rivaldo made no mistake from the spot before Patrick Kluivert finally made the tie safe after 104 minutes.
Barca continued to pressurize but then Chelsea nearly equalized on the night twice before the interval.
Both failed opportunities came from indifferent goalkeeping from Barca's Ruud Hesp. And the Londoners were made to pay for that profligacy as Barca grabbed a second in the closing seconds of the half.
After the game Rivaldo showed his gratitude to the 98,000 crowd, saying: "I am Rivaldo and I took the responsibility for the second penalty. I could not pass it up. I had to redeem myself. I would like to thank the crowd who helped us so much."
Valencia's coach Hector Cuper, an Argentinian, hailed a great night for Spanish football.
"It's important that whatever happens we'll have one team through to the final," he said.
Barcelona's victory brought a four-game losing streak to an end and where Lazio was concerned, their coach Sven Goran Eriksson said: "We could have scored more goals, because we created a lot of chances..." – (Several Sources)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
