LONDON -- Daniele Massaro kept alive AC Milan's hopes of rescuing its crumbling season with a match-winning goal at Casino Salzburg which sent the defending champion into the quarterfinals of the Champion's League Soccer Tournament.
Massaro's 26th-minute strike Wednesday was the only goal of the game in Vienna. But it enabled Milan to pull level on points with Salzburg in the Group D standings and advance on the basis that it had beaten the Austrian team twice.
Now Milan, whose season appeared to sliding into mediocrity, faces Portuguese titlist Benfica in the quarterfinals and still has a chance of matching Real Madrid's record of six Champion's Cup triumphs. Ajax, a three-time winner, topped the same group after beating AEK Athens 2-0.
Paris St. Germain, already sure of qualifying, maintained its 100 percent record by crushing Moscow Spartak, 4-1, with two goals coming from George Weah and more from David Ginola and Brazilian midfielder Rai.
Barcelona and Bayern Munich also made it to the last eight but another former champion, Manchester United, missed out despite beating Turkey's Galatasaray 4-0.
Barcelona gained a 1-1 tie with already qualified Goteborg, and Bayern came from Dinamo Kiev with a 4-1 victory masterminded by two-goal French strikerJean Pierre Papin.
In the quarterfinals, Bayern meets Goteborg, Barcelona faces PSG, Benfica takes on Milan and Hadjuk Split, despite losing 4-1 at home to Steaua Bucharest Wednesday, tussles with Ajax.
Milan also had been hampered by the loss of the two points it gained by beating Salzburg in the San Siro stadium in September. UEFA, soccer's European governing body, took them away because a home fan hurled a bottle that hit Casino goalkeeper Otto Konrad.
This time, Konrad couldn't get in the way of Massaro's rebound shot.
Tarik Oulida scored a goal in each half for Ajax against AEK as the Dutch team, unbeaten in its four games and a two-time winner over Milan, cruised into the last eight with 10 points from six games.
In Group A, Jose Maria Bakero headed home a corner from Hristo Stoichkov nine minutes from the end to book Barcelona's place in the last eight, even though Stefan Rehn leveled for the Swedes a minutes from the end.
Understrength Manchester United scored a comfortable victory over Galatasaray but couldn't overtake the leading two.
The results left Goteborg top with nine points, Barcelona and Manchester United six and Galatasaray three. Barcelona heads Manchester in the final standings on the basis of the results between the two teams. They tied 2-2 at Old Trafford but Barcelona triumphed 4-0 at Camp Nou. Even with seven of its stars missing through injury or suspension, Manchester United raced into a 3-0 lead by the 48th minute.
Simon Davies, reserve winger, fired the first after only three minutes, 19-year-old David Beckham hit the second in the 38th and Irish international Roy Keane scored the third three minutes after half time.
An own goal by defender Bulent completed United's victory before 49,000 fans at Old Trafford.
While Weah netted twice for PSG against Spartak in Group B, Papin scored two and set up more for Christian Nerlinger and Mehmet Scholl in Kiev after Andriy Shevchenko had given the home team the lead.
Dominant PSG finished with 12 points from six games, Bayern had six, Spartak four and Dinamo Kiev two.
Group C leader Benfica was held 1-1 by Anderlecht in Brussels.
Far too late to qualify, Steaua Bucharest, which won the title in 1986, produced its first win of the Champions League series with two goals coming from striker Adrian Ilie in Split.
In the UEFA Cup, Eintracht Frankfurt gained a 1-0 victory at Napoli to advance to the last eight on a 2-0 aggregate.
Frankfurt joins two more German teams, Bayer Leverkusen and Borussia Dortmund, in the quarterfinal but Napoli failed to join three more Italian clubs, Lazio, Parma and Juventus in next Wednesday's draw.
Massaro's 26th-minute strike Wednesday was the only goal of the game in Vienna. But it enabled Milan to pull level on points with Salzburg in the Group D standings and advance on the basis that it had beaten the Austrian team twice.
Now Milan, whose season appeared to sliding into mediocrity, faces Portuguese titlist Benfica in the quarterfinals and still has a chance of matching Real Madrid's record of six Champion's Cup triumphs. Ajax, a three-time winner, topped the same group after beating AEK Athens 2-0.
Paris St. Germain, already sure of qualifying, maintained its 100 percent record by crushing Moscow Spartak, 4-1, with two goals coming from George Weah and more from David Ginola and Brazilian midfielder Rai.
Barcelona and Bayern Munich also made it to the last eight but another former champion, Manchester United, missed out despite beating Turkey's Galatasaray 4-0.
Barcelona gained a 1-1 tie with already qualified Goteborg, and Bayern came from Dinamo Kiev with a 4-1 victory masterminded by two-goal French strikerJean Pierre Papin.
In the quarterfinals, Bayern meets Goteborg, Barcelona faces PSG, Benfica takes on Milan and Hadjuk Split, despite losing 4-1 at home to Steaua Bucharest Wednesday, tussles with Ajax.
Milan also had been hampered by the loss of the two points it gained by beating Salzburg in the San Siro stadium in September. UEFA, soccer's European governing body, took them away because a home fan hurled a bottle that hit Casino goalkeeper Otto Konrad.
This time, Konrad couldn't get in the way of Massaro's rebound shot.
Tarik Oulida scored a goal in each half for Ajax against AEK as the Dutch team, unbeaten in its four games and a two-time winner over Milan, cruised into the last eight with 10 points from six games.
In Group A, Jose Maria Bakero headed home a corner from Hristo Stoichkov nine minutes from the end to book Barcelona's place in the last eight, even though Stefan Rehn leveled for the Swedes a minutes from the end.
Understrength Manchester United scored a comfortable victory over Galatasaray but couldn't overtake the leading two.
The results left Goteborg top with nine points, Barcelona and Manchester United six and Galatasaray three. Barcelona heads Manchester in the final standings on the basis of the results between the two teams. They tied 2-2 at Old Trafford but Barcelona triumphed 4-0 at Camp Nou. Even with seven of its stars missing through injury or suspension, Manchester United raced into a 3-0 lead by the 48th minute.
Simon Davies, reserve winger, fired the first after only three minutes, 19-year-old David Beckham hit the second in the 38th and Irish international Roy Keane scored the third three minutes after half time.
An own goal by defender Bulent completed United's victory before 49,000 fans at Old Trafford.
While Weah netted twice for PSG against Spartak in Group B, Papin scored two and set up more for Christian Nerlinger and Mehmet Scholl in Kiev after Andriy Shevchenko had given the home team the lead.
Dominant PSG finished with 12 points from six games, Bayern had six, Spartak four and Dinamo Kiev two.
Group C leader Benfica was held 1-1 by Anderlecht in Brussels.
Far too late to qualify, Steaua Bucharest, which won the title in 1986, produced its first win of the Champions League series with two goals coming from striker Adrian Ilie in Split.
In the UEFA Cup, Eintracht Frankfurt gained a 1-0 victory at Napoli to advance to the last eight on a 2-0 aggregate.
Frankfurt joins two more German teams, Bayer Leverkusen and Borussia Dortmund, in the quarterfinal but Napoli failed to join three more Italian clubs, Lazio, Parma and Juventus in next Wednesday's draw.
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