Leverkusen, Panathinaikos head into quarters
Bayer Leverkusen swept to a 3-1 victory over Deportivo Coruna and Panathinaikos earned a 2-2 draw with Real Madrid on Wednesday to snatch the last two remaining places in the Champions League quarter-finals.
Leverkusen's win meant they overtook Deportivo, who qualified last week, to finish the second phase top of group D and deny Arsenal a place in Friday's draw.
Arsenal lost 1-0 to a largely second-string Juventus side in Turin after dominating the game at a near-empty Delle Alpi stadium.
A similar situation was played out in group C, where Real Madrid were already certain of finishing top.
Along with a win of their own, Porto needed a Real victory over Panathinaikos -- but the eight-times European champions drew in Athens and the Portuguese slumped to a 2-0 defeat at Sparta Prague.
The top four will now join the winners of groups A and B, Manchester United and Barcelona, along with their respective runners-up Bayern Munich, the reigning champions, and Liverpool, in the draw at UEFA's Swiss headquarters.
Group winners, who cannot be drawn against each other, will also benefit from playing the second legs of their quarter-finals at home. They cannot face their former group opponents from the second stage.
The spotlight had been on group D for Wednesday's action, with English football hoping for a hat-trick of entrants to the last eight -- only for Arsenal to be floored by a double whammy.
UNRECOGNISABLE
Leverkusen, unrecognisable from the team who were crushed 4-1 by Arsenal last month, outplayed their Spanish hosts in the first half and only poor finishing kept them to a 1-0 lead at the break after Michael Ballack's header.
Bernd Schneider bundled home a second and Oliver Neuville's glancing header in the 86th minute made sure of victory after substitute Diego Tristan had pulled one back for Deportivo.
Leverkusen coach Klaus Toppmoeller said: "We played excellently, especially in the tactical aspects.
"This was a crucial game for us. We prepared very carefully, having watched a lot of videos of Deportivo, and it paid off."
Arsenal, whose manager Arsene Wenger had been talking of winning a European Cup, FA Cup and English league treble, made a miserable exit from the competition after their second consecutive defeat.
Uruguayan striker Marcelo Zalayeta headed the 76th minute winner for Juventus, who had already been eliminated from the competition last week.
Thierry Henry, who joined Arsenal in 1999 after an unhappy spell at Juventus, had a second-half penalty saved -- a week after he missed from the spot in a 2-0 defeat to Deportivo.
HIGHBURY LOSS
Harking back to that loss at Highbury, Wenger said: "I think we lost (qualification) at home against Deportivo.
"If we had won or drawn against them it would have been a different situation tonight."
The Frenchman added: "What we need is consistency. It is always frustrating not to win the competition but we were very close to going through."
In group C, Real Madrid were already home and dry after winning all five of their previous second phase games.
The Spanish giants were twice behind -- with goals from Fernando Morientes and Javier Garcia Portillo cancelling out strikes by Nikos Liberopoulos and Yiannis Goumas.
Real coach Vicente Del Bosque hinted he would rather draw Liverpool on Friday after saying he wanted to steer clear of his team's two other potential opponents.
"I would like to avoid Deportivo La Coruna in the next round so we can have as many Spanish teams as possible in the semis," he said, before adding later: "I wouldn't favour Bayern either, they are the reigning European champions."
Panathinaikos were in any case assured of runners-up spot as second-half goals from Libor Sionko and Jiri Jarosik gave Sparta Prague victory over Porto.
