Manchester United have not won at Stamford Bridge in almost a decade, but that all changed on Wednesday night when they took a slender lead in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final by beating Chelsea 0 – 1.

Wayne Rooney‘s foul-mouthed celebration after scoring a hat-trick at West Ham on Saturday may have landed him in hot water with the Football Association, but he carried on his fine form against Chelsea with an away goal for United to take back to Old Trafford for the return match next Tuesday.

The crucial moment arrived midway through the first half when Ryan Giggs superbly controlled a long pass from Michael Carrick and cut the ball back for Rooney to slide home a composed finish that went in off the post.

Chelsea almost equalised on the stroke of half-time as Fernando Torres guided an effort against the post and Frank Lampard’s volley on the rebound was cleared off the line by Patrice Evra.

Torres went close again in the second half but still could not open his account for the Bluesas Edwin van der Sar pulled off a magnificent acrobatic save to claw out his well-placed header.

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Tottenham Hotspur’s European dreams are in tatters after they were mauled by Real Madrid at the Bernabeu Stadium on Tuesday in their Champions League match.

Former Arsenal man Emmanuel Adebayor took his tally against Spurs to nine in nine matches by heading home either side of half-time to rock the visitors, who had been reduced to 10 men after Peter Crouch’s 15th minute dismissal for two bookings.

Harry Redknapp’s miserable night was completed by second-half strikes from Cristiano Ronaldo and Angel Di Maria, meaning that Tottenham will have to overhaul Real and stop Jose Mourinho’s chances of picking up his third winner’s medal.

Gareth Bale offered brief glimpses of hope for Spurs, but their numerical advantage, and a top-drawer performance from Real’s attack, meant they never really looked like grabbing an away goal that would have given them a fighting chance of staying in the quarter-final tie.

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For the second year in a row Arsenal were exited from the Champions League at Camp Nou by Barcelona. Barca moved into the quarter finals with a 3 – 1 (aggregate: 4 – 3) win over the Gunners.

Barcelona dominated the match with their slick passing game which stunted anything Arsenal tried to create, and two goals from Lionel Messi and one from Xavi won the game for the Catalans with Sergio Busquets scoring an own goal for Arsenal’s consolation. However it was the controversial sending off of Robin van Persie that helped swing the game in Barcelona’s favour after the Gunners’ fortuitous equaliser.

Arsenal were given a huge boost before kick off as both Van Persie and Cesc Fabregas were declared fit and named in the starting line-up. The Dutchman had been substituted in the League Cup final with a knee problem and Fabregas injured his hamstring against Stoke City a month ago, but both men recovered quicker than expected.

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Arsenal got the winning goal seven minutes from normal time to give the Gunners a surprising 2 – 1 win over Champions Barcelona in the first leg of their Champions League encounter last night.

Two goals in the final 12 minutes from Robin van Persie and substitute Andrey Arshavin clinched a dramatic victory for the English Premier League side after Barcelona had taken the lead through a first-half David Villa strike.

The result means Arsenal — thrashed 6-3 on aggregate by Barcelona in last year’s quarterfinals — will carry a narrow lead into Camp Nou when the two sides meet in the second leg on March 8.

“It was one of the special nights because I feel we needed to be a special team,” said Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger.

“It’s open. We will go (to Camp Nou) and play our game again because you cannot just defend against this team. Our confidence will grow.”

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AC Milan captain Rino Gattuso head-butted Scotland legend Joe Jordan last night after Spurs pulled off a sensational Champions League win over his team at the San Siro.

A goal from Peter Crouch 10 minutes from time gave them a 1-0 first leg victory but the triumph was overshadowed by Milan skipper Gattusos antics at the end of the match when he struck Spurs No.2 Jordan himself a former AC Milan hero.

Gattuso had shoved Jordan in an incident during the match but at full-time the duo went eyeball to eyeball on the touchline, screaming at each other before the Italian – who was booked and will miss the second leg at White Hart Lane, head-butted the Tartan Army legend.

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Champions Inter Milan will play Bayern Munich in a repeat of last season’s final following the draw for the first knockout round of the Champions League made in Nyon, Switzerland on Friday.

Inter beat Bayern 2-0 in Madrid to clinch their first European crown for 45 years.

The other standout tie paired this season’s favourites Barcelona with Arsenal who they beat 6-3 on aggregate in last season’s quarterfinals.

First legs will be played on February 15 and 16 and February 22 and 23 with the return legs on March 8 and 9 and March 15 and 16. The final will be at Wembley Stadium on May 28.

DRAW

AS Roma v Shakhtar Donetsk
AC Milan v Tottenham Hotspur
Valencia v Schalke 04
Inter Milan v Bayern Munich
Olympique Lyon v Real Madrid
Arsenal v Barcelona
Olympique Marseille v Manchester United
FC Copenhagen v Chelsea

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After losing the north London derby against Spurs this week, Arsenal‘s woes continued as they fell short 2 – 0 against Braga in Portugal.

Matheus was the Braga match-winner, with two strikes in the last seven minutes saw the Portuguese team draw level with Arsenal in Group H and means Arsenal have more work to do to qualify for the knockout stage.

Arsene Wenger rung the changes – but surprisingly included Cesc Fabregas despite his hamstring problems. Otherwise Tomas Rosicky, Theo Walcott, Jack Wilshere, Johan Djourou, Emmanuel Eboue, Kieran Gibbs and Nicklas Bendtner all came into the Arsenal team. Braga showed three changes to the side that lost 6-0 at Arsenal in September, with Lima, Elderson and Leandro Salino all involved this time around.

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