Pippo presses claim

Pippo Inzaghi clearly fancies a trip to Germany, as the Milan striker again forced his way into the spotlight with two goals in his side's last-gasp Champions League quarter-final triumph over Lyon.

The rossoneri goal-sniffer had been far from certain to be named in Marcello Lippi's Italy 23, but was picked ahead of Azzurri dead-cert Alberto Gilardino on Tuesday and found the net twice - including the decisive second just two minutes from time - to see off the French champions and take his tally to 14 in 24 games.

Argentina playmaker Juan Roman Riquelme was again inspirational as Villarreal created the shock of the week by pipping Inter 1-0 to reach the last four of the Champions League.

Portugal hitman Pauleta again found the net to extend his lead at the top of the Ligue 1 scoring charts this week, cracking home three against former side Bordeaux to give Paris St. Germain a 3-1 win last Sunday.

While many of Juve's stars failed to shine in the dreary goalless draw with Arsenal on Wednesday, Italy number one Gigi Buffon proved he is back to his best with a number of fine stops.

Despite missing the first half of the season through injury, Buffon saved the Serie A leaders from humiliation, twice denying Freddie Ljungberg and even coming out on top in a one-on-one duel with Thierry Henry.

Buffon's team-mate Pavel Nedved though had a less-than-happy seven days.

Suspended for his side's dismal goalless draw against Treviso last weekend after being sent off against Roma, the Czech Republic dynamo returned for Juve's quarter-final second leg on Wednesday.

But Nedved - who missed the first leg at Highbury through suspension - was given extra time to preen his flowing locks after hacking down Arsenal right-back Emmanuel Eboue to deservedly pick up a second yellow card 13 minutes from the end of the game in Turin.

Eric Abidal was the chief culprit as Lyon tumbled out of the Champions League, the France defender twice guilty of ball-watching, firstly to see Inzaghi head home, the second, crucially being sucked into the middle as a diagonal ball came into the box to allow Andriy Shevchenko space, which ultimately led to the all-important second goal.

Jonathan Woodgate's flickering World Cup hopes appear all but extinguised as the England wannabe will miss the remainder of the Liga season as his injury-jinx strikes again - a back problem now laying low the Real Madrid defender.

Yes, it's poorJurgen Klinsmann again under the grill - this time Bayern Munich commercial manager Uli Hoeness accusing the Germany boss of terrifying Oliver Kahn into bad performances.

Hoeness pointed to Klinsmann's decision not to decide until May between Bayern stopper Kahn and Arsenal's Jens Lehmann as his first-choice keeper for the World Cup, saying Kahn's displays have been affected by the furore.

"Not making a decision on the starting goalkeeper after the last friendly against the United States was irresponsible," said Hoeness. "It's psychological terror, absolute psycho terror."

Klinsmann meanwhile was in Turin to watch a solid, error-free Lehmann help eliminate Juventus, keeping a record eighth consecutive Champions League clean sheet in the process.

And this just in...Saturday's Bild reports Lehmann and not Kahn will be number one.