Fiorentina 3 - Barcelona 3
All issues in group B were already decided last week, with Barcelona as group champions and Fiorentina as runners up. Having played and won last week with a team full of reserves, Van Gaal decided that he would pick his first team players this time, especially as they had lost at the weekend and he had no desire to lose two in a row. Figo, Rivaldo, Luis Enrique, Cocu and Guardiola all came into the side, with Déhu keeping his place in the centre of defence and Ronald De Boer and Zenden as make-shift full backs. Fiorentina did rest key players however, with Batistuta and Cois being replaced by Balbo and Bressan. Any criticism that they were not fielding a strong team was dissipated as the two replacements got the three home side goals between them. The first goal, scored by Bressan after a quarter of an hour, was as they say in the trade a cracker, his speculative bicycle kick from outside of the area carrying over Arnau's head and into the net. Barcelona were in the lead however by half time, with first an individualist goal by Figo and then a shot by Rivaldo through a crowd of players. Fiorentina came out for the second half on overdrive, and Balbo scored twice in thirteen minutes to put the home team back in front. Rivaldo levelled the scores a few minutes later, chesting down Kluivert's cross before shooting past Toldo. Barcelona ended the first league phase with 14 points, equal best with Lazio, and with 19 goals scored in six games. They were fortunate with the draw for the next stage, getting paired with Sparta Prague, Oporto and Hertha Berlin, considered by local press as the easiest group of the three Spanish sides.

Molde 0 - Real Madrid 1
On a cold and at times rainy night in Norway, John Toshack saved his first matchball as manager of Real Madrid. With one eye on Saturday's vital derby match with league leaders Rayo Vallecano, and with the pass to the next round already in the bag, Toshack packed the squad with reserves and youngsters. Raúl and Morientes were both left at home, and Karanka, Karembeu and club captain Sanchis joined the starting line up (local press criticised the manager for including Karembeu, who had been linked with another European club this week and who will now be cup-tied for Europe as a result of this match). Three youngsters from Madrid's lower teams were also included for the first time, with Real Madrid C's 19 year old striker Aranda playing alone up front from the start, and Corona (C team midfielder) and Sestelo (B team forward) on the bench alongside B team full back Dorado. For the first time Bizzarri played a solid game in goal, and either team could have scored before Karembeu broke the equilibrium just before half time, getting on the end of a pass from Sanchis inside the penalty area. Eto'o came on for Aranda ten minutes into the second half and the Cameroon forward came close to scoring within minutes of coming on. The anecdote of the day was the appearance for the first time in European competition of a lady linesman (or should we say linesperson?), Nelly Viannot of France. With Oporto losing to Olympiakos, Real Madrid ended as group champions, and they entered the draw as one of the top four seeds. They were drawn with Rosenborg, Batern Munich and Dynamo Kiev. 0

Valencia 1 - PSV Eindhoven
After complaining strongly about referees performances in previous games, Valencia were handed the match against PSV by an error by match referee Graham Barber. Claudio López took a free kick just outside of the penalty area, and the ball hit Barber on the leg. López followed up and shot past the surprised Waterreus without any other player touching the ball, and with the referee unsighted he awarded the goal, despite vigorous protests from the Dutch players. Apart from the illegality of the goal the result was justified and there was only really one team in the game, with PSV obviously only interested in a draw with an outside chance of qualifying for UEFA in third place. Valencia lined up with only one change from the last match, Juan Sánchez coming in for the injured Ilie. Angulo and Djukic kept their places in defence, and Oscar came on for Sánchez after the goal. Valencia finished top of their group, but went into the draw as second seeds in view of a lower coefficient. With Barcelona and Real Madrid as top seeds, that meant that would have to play in a group with either Manchester United or Lazio, as they could not be paired with other Spanish teams. In the end they got the English champions, together with Bordeaux and Fiorentina, and they will have to pull out all the stops if they are to progress to the quarter finals.