Gunners and Magpies draw

Group B

Arsenal drew their fourth successive Champions League match last night, 1-1 at Highbury against ten-man Roma, meaning that Arsène Wenger's side now need to take at least a point from their daunting-looking final Group B encounter at the Mestalla against Valencia next Wednesday evening to qualify for the knockout stages.

It was the home team that began the brighter of the two sides, with both Sylvain Wiltord and Gilberto Silva going close early on, before the Gunners took the lead in the 12th minutes through captain Patrick Vieira's first Champions League goal in a year.

The Frenchman rose to head home Giovanni van Bronckhorst's right-wing corner, getting above his marker Francisco Lima and leaving Ivan Pelizzoli in the visitor's goal stranded. And, seven minutes later, the midfielder could have had a second headed goal, but for an outstanding fingertip save from the 22-year-old goalkeeper.

However, the match appeared to shift inexorably towards Arsenal on 22 minutes when Roma's captain, Francesco Totti, was shown the red card having caught Martin Keown in the face with his hand.

The Premiership champions went in search of that killer second goal before half-time, but were frustrated in their attempts when first, Robert Pires correctly had a goal ruled out for offside, and then Dennis Bergkamp shot across the face of goal having been set up by Vieira, who brilliantly dispossessed Damiano Tommasi on the halfway line.

But with just seconds to go until the break, the Arsenal defence went to sleep and the Romans' only striker on the pitch, Antonio Cassano, collected Emerson da Rosa's through-ball, beat the offside trap, before rounding David Seaman and rolling the ball into the empty net.

The home team came out with all guns blazing after half-time and within minutes, could have restored their lead following a Roma corner. Bergkamp led the counter-attack, but not for the first time on the night, Pelizzoli was on hand to see off the danger, turning away Wiltord's fierce drive.

Ten minutes into the second period, Arsenal went close to scoring on four separate occasions within a matter of moments, firstly when Vieira and Bergkamp combined, and the Dutchman's perfectly-weighted lay-off found Wiltord arriving at pace on the edge of the area, only for the Frenchman to shoot high over the bar.

Then, seconds later, Pires almost crafted one of the competitions goals of the season. Collecting a ball from Vieira, the France international went on a mazy, jinking run that took him past three opposition defenders, but again the final shot was off target, as were later efforts from Henry and Bergkamp that failed to make the keeper work.

With 13 minutes remaining, substitute Fredrik Ljungberg almost stole the points for the Londoners, but after a scramble in the area, his close-range shot was blocked by Pelizzoli and fellow replacement Francis Jeffers placed the rebound wide from ten yards out.

Both sides had one final chance to claim a win, Arsenal's Gilberto drilled a shot narrowly wide of the post from distance and Roma's outstanding defender Cafu broke clear down the right with seven minutes left, before delivering an inch-perfect cross to the back post for the unmarked substitute Vincenzo Montella to head over from barely five yards out.

The result means that Wenger's team have now drawn their last four Champions League games in a row at Highbury, winning none at all in the second group stage in north London, something that their skipper alluded to after the final whistle.

"That was very frustrating to draw tonight", said Vieira. "We tried hard, but obviously we are very disappointed as we scored a goal and were leading with just a few seconds to go until half-time. In the second half we tried and tried to score, but in the end, we just could not. We had so many shots on goal, but today was just not our day.

"We have to believe that we can qualify next Wednesday", he continued. "We need to work really hard and we will see what happens."

And after fellow Group B contestants Ajax and Valencia fought out a 1-1 draw in the Amsterdam ArenA last night, the table is as you were at the start of the evening, with just three points separating the four teams. It was the Spanish champions who took a first-half lead thanks to a Kily González penalty, only for the Eredivisie champions to equalise on the hour mark when Finland striker Petri Pasanen headed home unmarked from the penalty spot following a well-worked corner routine.

Standings

Group A

In Group A last night, Newcastle United drew 2-2 at Internazionale, while Barcelona beat pointless Bayer Leverkusen 2-0 at the Camp Nou, meaning that Sir Bobby Robson's side must now win their final match at home against his former employers next Wednesday, and hope that Inter do not win at the BayArena on the same evening, to complete their second great escape of this season's competition.

The Magpies could have been behind after only 90 seconds in San Siro after Christian Vieri took advantage of some hesitancy from centre-back Andy O'Brien on the edge of his own box to play in Emre Belözoglu, but luckily for the Irishman, the midfielder shot wastefully over the bar.

However, for the remainder of the first period, the Serie A side were given the run-around by their Premiership opponents and were lucky to be going in at the break trailing by just the one goal.

Nolberto Solano, who was a late replacement for the hamstrung Kieron Dyer, rattled Francesco Toldo's crossbar with a sweetly-struck first-time volley from the edge of the area that only rebounded to safety via the Azzurri national 'keeper's head, before the his reflexes again denied the Peruvian moments later following good work on the touch-line by Alan Shearer.

Next it was the turn of both Jermaine Jenas and Craig Bellamy to work Toldo following fine individual runs as the Geordie pressure became incessant, until three minutes before the break, Shearer grabbed his first ever goal for Newcastle on mainland Europe, beating Javier Zanetti at the back post to Bellamy's enticing ball played across the box.

That joy was short-lived though, as 63 seconds after the restart, Vieri headed in Sérgio Conceição's right-wing centre for his first Champions League goal of the season at the tenth time of asking, and his first in Europe for a year-and-a-quarter.

Back came Newcastle again and within two minutes they had regained their one-goal lead when that man Shearer netted for the sixth time in the European Cup this season in what was just his ninth start, in the process taking him past Wyn Davies as the club's all-time leading goalscorer in Europe with eleven. The striker had taken advantage of a fumble by Toldo following Laurent Robert's deep cross into the penalty area to toe-poke home his second of the night.

Newcastle knew that the Milanese giants would put their goal under pressure from that moment onwards, and after Vieri had missed a glorious chance to bring Inter level, heading over unmarked from six yards out, Shay Given produced a world-class save to deny the striker again moments later, touching his fierce left-footed drive round the post.

But, just past the hour mark, the home team drew level for the second time on the night when Colombian international defender Iván Cordoba outjumped Gary Speed at the back post to powerfully head in Emre's free-kick past a helpless Given. Speed himself had one last chance to make amends, but planted a late header straight at Toldo when well placed.

After the match, Robson said he was: "Disappointed with the result, but it was a tough match and we have to learn how to win big matches like that, in big stadiums like that, as we gave away an unnecessary free kick for their second goal."

His captain Shearer agreed. "We are novices at this level," said the former England skipper. "But all the lads are bitterly disappointed in the changing room back there because we deserved to win tonight and we are also disappointed with some of the things that happened on the pitch out there tonight," before Wales international Bellamy added: "They were very cute tonight, but we expected that from them. We expect Inter to take the points next week from Leverkusen as they are the worst team in the group, but we still have a chance."

In the night's other game, Barça confirmed their place in the quarter-final draw as winners of Group A after a 2-0 win over last season's runners-up Leverkusen, who have failed to collect a single point yet in the second group stages. Goals either side of half-time from Argentina international forward Javier Saviola, after a good run and cross by Marc Overmars, and a Thomas Kleine own goal, gave the Catalans all three points.

Standings

Richard Morgan