Chelsea and Barcelona book Champions League semifinal spots

Chelsea and Barcelona booked places in the Champions League semifinals on Tuesday as both played to draws that were enough to see them advance on aggregate.   Chelsea and Liverpool played a wild 4-4 match that had plenty of drama as Liverpool erased a 1-3 1st leg loss on a pair of goals in the first half.   The first goal was a disaster from usually reliabe Petr Cech and the 2nd a penalty kick from Xabi Alonso.  Chelsea would respond after halftime though as Drogba somehow got a ball past Liverpool keeper Reina and then Alex followed with a masterful blast of a free kick that found the net.

Chelsea looked safe at that point and after Frank Lampard scored in the 76th everyone felt the match was over with Chelsea on a 6-3 aggregate lead, but Liverpool were not finished.  Two goals in two minutes pulled Liverpool to within a goal as Lucas and Dirk Kuyt scored, but Frank Lampard would end the drama scoring in the 89th for the 4-4 match final and 7-5 Chelsea aggregate win.

Barcelona had done their work on the first leg winning 4-0 at home and had little more to do than kill off the return match in Germany to Bayern Munich.   Frank Ribery scored in the 47th minute to give Bayern a little hope, but Keira would even the game for Barcelona in the 73rd.  Barcelona advances on 5-1 aggregate.