Barca revive hopes of defending crown
Catalan giants beat Inter 2-0 to top Group F
London: Barcelona revived their chances of holding onto the Champions League title with a 2-0 victory over Inter Milan on Tuesday while Fiorentina and Arsenal advanced to the last 16 and five-time winners Liverpool were eliminated.
In danger of going out of the competition if the results had gone badly, Barcelona raised their game to comfortably beat the Italian champions with goals by Gerard Pique and Pedro Rodriguez at Camp Nou and climb to the top of the Group F standings.
"A victory like this helps us ... to finish first," Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola said. "We played a good game, which is fantastic for us."
The victory lifted Barcelona from third to first and all but ensured qualification while Inter are now in danger of going out. Jose Mourinho's team are level on six points with newly crowned Russian champion Rubin Kazan who were held 0-0 at home by Dynamo Kiev.
To make it even more exciting going to the final round of games on December 9, last place Kiev could still qualify. They have five points and, if they beat Barcelona at home and Inter and Rubin draw in Milan, then Barca and Kiev will go through.
Fiorentina made it to the second round with a 1-0 victory over Lyon, which had already qualified from Group E, and that result put Liverpool out despite a 1-0 victory at Hungary's Debrecen.
Juan Vargas' 29th minute penalty was enough for Fiorentina's fourth victory in five group games and sent the Italian side through with 12 points. Lyon dropped to second and, although David Ngog's goal in Budapest gave Liverpool victory and seven points, they can't catch either of the teams above and will drop into the Europa League as consolation for finishing third.
Romanian champions Unirea beat already-qualified Sevilla 1-0 at home to move closer to a place in the last 16 on their debut in the competition.
Sevilla defender Ivica Dragutinovic headed the ball into his own net in the final minute of the first half and Unirea now have eight points, two fewer than the Spanish team.
