Big guns let qualification chances slip with defeats

ALL the Champions League big guns who hoped to seal their places in the second round of the competition last night stuttered with qualification at their mercy.

While Liverpool kept their qualification hopes alive in Moscow and Arsenal probably will not lose too much sleep in defeat to Auxerre because of their comfortable points position, Real Madrid and Valencia let slip their chance to rubber-stamp qualification.

The biggest story of the night probably came at the Bernabeau Stadium in Madrid, where AEK Athens came from a 2-0 half-time deficit to draw level with the Spanish giants with two goals from Katsouranis and Centeno.