Valencia 2 - Arsenal 1

Valencia: Cañizares (Palop 72'); Revellèire, Ayala (Marchena 89'), Pellegrino Carboni; Rufete, Albelda, Aimar, Vicente; Juan Sánchez (Angulo 68'), Carew. 4-4-2.
Arsenal: Taylor; Lauren, Campbell, Cygan, Touré (Kanu 86'); Ljungberg, Vieira, Gilberto Silva, Pires; Wiltord (Jeffers 76'), Henry. 4-4-2.

Goals:
1-0. 34. Carew. Ran on to Aimar through ball to shoot low past Taylor.
1-1. 49. Henry. Took Pires return pass to curl shot wide of Cañizares.
2-1. 57. Carew. Headed down across Taylor from Vicente's cross.

Group B:
Valencia............... 9 points
Ajax........................ 8 points
Arsenal................. 7 points
Roma.................... 5 points

Valencia qualified for the quarter finals as group B champions after beating Arsenal 2-1. Rafa Benítez's side needed to win to reach the last eight, and the manager put out an attacking side with Carew, Aimar and Juan Sánchez all in the starting line up. Baraja was suspended though, and an injury to Kily González at the weekend meant that the left wing spot went to Vicente. Arsenal were missing the injured David Seaman and Ashley Cole, with Taylor and Touré filling in for them.

Arsene Wenger's side only needed a point to qualify for the last eight, and could even have gone through with a loss if Roma had beaten Ajax in the other group game. However news came through in the opening minutes that the Dutch side had already scored, which meant there was no margin for error. The visitors pushed forward but could not break down one of the best defences in Europe, with Cañizares saving a couple of efforts from Henry and Pires shooting just wide. On the half hour mark they almost went ahead though when Gilberto rocketed in a header following a corner, but without knowing much about it, Vicente headed the ball off the line and up on to the crossbar.

It was a big let off, and only five minutes later Valencia took the lead when Carew took advantage of slack marking to shoot past Taylor. Henry levelled the scores four minutes after the restart, but Carew was there again eight minutes later to head Vicente's cross down past the keeper for what was to be the winning goal. Valencia keeper Cañizares had to go off with concussion soon afterwards when Ljungberg caught him with his boot when going in for a challenge, but Palop came on to mop up any danger. Arsenal were on their way out, and they must be having nightmares about Carew, who had scored the goal which knocked the Londoners out of the competition two years ago. Valencia avoided the other two Spanish teams in Friday's quarter final draw, and will play Héctor Cúper's Inter Milan.