Barca and Sporting reach knockout stage

Barcelona and Sporting advanced to the Champions League knockout stage while Inter Milan and Chelsea missed the chance to guarantee their places on Tuesday.

A 1-1 draw at home to Basel was enough for Barca to qualify from Group C alongside Portugal's Sporting, who beat Ukraine's Shakhtar Donetsk 1-0 thanks to Brazilian striker Derlei's 73rd-minute strike.

Substitute Lionel Messi put the Spaniards en route to the next phase when he fired the home side in front in the 62nd minute, though Basel gave the Primera Liga leaders a fright with an equaliser from Eren Derdiyok eight minutes before the end.

"It took us a bit of effort to get into the match and exert our superiority," Barca coach Pep Guardiola said in a television interview. "But we have qualified for the last 16 and that's great news."

In the other matches, last season's runners-up Chelsea fell 3-1 at AS Roma and Serie A champions Inter needed an 80th-minute header from striker Julio Cruz to salvage a 3-3 draw in Cyprus against a resilient Anorthosis Famagusta.

Liverpool, the 2005 champions, relied on a controversial stoppage-time penalty by captain Steven Gerrard to secure a 1-1 home draw with Atletico Madrid and remain level on eight points with the Spaniards at the top of Group D.

Inter's draw, combined with Panathinaikos's 3-0 win at Werder Bremen, left Group B wide open with two matches remaining. The Italians are top on eight points from four games, Anorthosis have five, Panathinaikos four and Werder three.