LONDON, Dec 11: An 88th-minute goal by a Yugoslav in Athens ended the dreams of a .team of Norwe-

gians and sparked wild celebrations in Turin as the Champions' League group stage came to a furious finale on Wednesday. reports Reuters.

A night of fluctuating fortunes and late drama saw 1996 winers and last year's runners-up Juventus scrape into the Suarterfinals by the skin of teir teeth, along with Real Madrid. Manaco and Bayer Leverkusen.

Juventus needed to beat Manchester United to have any chance of claiming one of the two places as best runners-up and were making heavy work of it until Filippo Inzaghi struck seven minutes from time.

They held out for the 1-0 win but that wouldn't have been enough but for a last-gasp equaliser for Olympiakos against Rosenborg Trondheim in Athens.

The little Norwegian club had come from behind to lead 2-1 and were on course to make the last eight for the second successive season until Predrag Djordjevic netted a 20-metre free-kick to make it 2-2 two minutes from time.

Sigurd Rushfeldt. who got both Rosenborg goals after Dimitris Mavrogenidis had put Olympiakos ahead, said: "This is the worst moment in my career. I scored twice, we were

ahead until the 88th and then everything was lost.

Retiring Rosenborg coach NUM Arne Eggen was In more philosophical mood as he looked back at his last match in charge. 'These tilings happen in soccer. We were one breath away from qualifying but Olympiakos were very strong and the draw was fair."

Juve defender. Ciro Ferrara was in buoyant mood. "We played superbly tonight and deserved to win." he said. "It's true we had to rely on other results but make no mistake, Juventus are still a great team."

Had they not made it, it would have been the first time since the 1987-88 season that the quarter-finals would not have featured an Italian team.

On that occasion it was Napoli who failed, knocked out in the first round by Real Madrid, and the Spaniards are in ominously good form in this year's competition as they eased through with a 4-0 home thrashing of Porto.

Two goals by Davor Suker and one each for Fernando Hierro and Brazilian Roberto Carlos clinched top spot in Group D.

Monaco and Leverkusen always knew that a draw would send both sides through but it was looking shaky for the French champions as they trailed 2-0 after an hour to eoals by Stefan Beinlich and

rik Meijer.

But Christophe Pignol, in the 63rd minute, and Thierry Henry, nine minutes from time, - madeJtdMWnd gave Mpn*M -top spot in the group.

It was a heartbreaking night for Paris St Germain, who beat Besiktas of Turkey 2-1 with goals by Franck Gava and Marco Simone and for a while were in the frame for the last eight.

Even PSV Eindhoven, who eventually drew 2-2 at home with Barcelona, were in the running as they led the Spaniards midway through the second half, only for events elsewhere to shunt them out of the limelight.

Holders Borussia Dortmund. Bayern Munich. Dynamo Kiev and Manchester United were already through.

Dortmund cruised to a 3-0 win at Sparta Prague with goals from Andreas Moeller. Jovan Korvski and Scott Booth but Bayern went down 1-0 at home to Gothenburg thanks to a Markus Babbel own goal.

Kiev slipped to their first defeat of the campaign — 2-0 at Newcastle — and Manchester United may yet come to rue allowing Juventus to grab that late, all-important, winner.

Elsewhere Feyenoord won 1-0 at Kosice to leave the Slovaks without a point in their debut season in the competition. Sporting Lisbon beat Lierse 2-1 in Portugal and Galatasaray drew 1-1 at home with Parma.