Challengers enjoy domestic success

By Michael Harrold

All five UEFA Champions League quarter-finalists in action on Saturday will return to European competition with confidence high after recording impressive victories in domestic league matches.

Liverpool joy
Title-chasing FC Bayern München, Chelsea FC, PSV Eindhoven and Olympique Lyonnais all maintained or strengthened their grasp on their respective leagues with victory. But perhaps the biggest cheer of the day was at Anfield where Liverpool FC increased their chances of a return to the Champions League next season with a crucial 1-0 win at home to Bolton Wanderers FC.

'Hard game'
Victory took Liverpool to within a point of city rivals Everton FC and that all-important fourth qualifying place, and raised spirits ahead of Tuesday's home leg with Juventus FC. "We knew this would be a tough and hard game and I always felt one goal would be enough to win it," manager Rafael Benítez said. "I was happy for Igor Bišcan to score and he is working very hard. We needed to win this game and now we have reduced the gap. We'll keep fighting right to the end."

Gudjohnsen double
Premiership leaders Chelsea stretched their lead at the top to 13 points after winning their sixth match in succession, 3-1 away to Southampton FC. Chelsea were not at their brilliant best, but as the finish line in the title race draws near, two-goal hero Eidur Gudjohnsen said it was the result that mattered the most.

'Tired legs'
"We had some tired legs after the international week," the Icelandic striker said. "It probably wasn't our best game but all we need to do at this stage is keep winning. My [second] goal was important as it killed the game for us, giving us an important three points again."

Pizarro out
Chelsea welcome Bayern to Stamford Bridge on Wednesday and the German champions maintained their grip on the Bundesliga summit by winning 3-0 away to VfL Wolfsburg. The loss of Claudio Pizarro with a thigh injury, ruling him out of Wednesday's match, took the gloss off victory, but coach Felix Magath was otherwise delighted with his side's performance.

'Huge step'
"The game was basically decided at half-time and all we had to do was defend our lead in the second half," Magath said. "It was a huge step towards winning the championship. We will start concentrating on the match at Chelsea now and I'm optimistic we can get a good result there, even though we will need an even better performance than today's."

'Tough test'
Lyon play PSV on Tuesday after coming through a difficult test at home to RC Lens. "We suffered all game long which is not a surprise against Lens," coach Paul Le Guen said. "To win 1-0 suits me very well. Our heads can now turn to Tuesday's game."

'Good football'
First-half goals from Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink and Ji-Sung Park gave the runaway Dutch leaders a comfortable 2-0 victory at home to FC Utrecht, and coach Guus Hiddink, was impressed by his side's application on their return to Eredivisie action. "I'm glad we continued where we'd left off," he said. "You never know how the players will return from international duty. In our last match before the break we defeated [AFC] Ajax, having played some good football, and we continued in the same manner today."

Serie A postponed
FC Internazionale Milano play AC Milan on Wednesday and both sides, like Juventus, return to Champions League action without having played this weekend after the Serie A programme was postponed out of respect to Pope John Paul II, who died on Saturday evening.