Tottenham continued their astonishing run in Europe with a gritty 0-0 draw at home that took them through against AC Milan after Peter Crouch's winner in the first leg. Who would have thought after 35 minutes at Inter and a 4-0 deficit in the group stage that they would be through into the quarter finals. With Inter staring down the barrel after losing 1-0 at home to Bayern Munich, both Milanese sides could be gone by next week, ending Italian involvement before the quarter final stage.
Joining Tottenham were Barcelona, Shakhtar Donetsk and Schalke 04. Barcelona's passage at the expense of Arsenal may not be a surprise, but the game was easily the most contoversial of the week after the send off of Van Persie following a second yellow card for shooting at goal after the whistle had gone. One second earlier. In a very noisy stadium. It seemed an unneccessarily technical decision, smacking of inexperience. Given Arsenal led on aggregate at the time and subsequently conceded two goals to go out 4-3, it was little surprise that Arsene Wenger lost his cool again. He has now been charged with improper conduct following a spirited tunnel debate with the ref.
What should have been the most remarkable aspect of the game was that Arsenal failed to have a shot in the 90 minutes. Not just no shots on target. Not even a shot off target. The only more remarkable fact was that despite that they still managed to score, courtesy of an own goal. Still trying to find a previous occurence of that one...
Elsewhere, Schalke won 3-1 against Valencia for a 4-2 aggregate win, while Shakhtar continued to impress with a 3-0 dismantling of AS Roma for a 6-2 aggregate drubbing. Apart from a 5-1 loss at Arsenal, they have won all their other games so far and are a good chance to be the dark horse in the semis.
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