Inter Milan (3) 0 - Alavés (3) 2

Alavés: Herrera; Contra, Eggen, Téllez, Geli; Desio, Pablo (Magno 65'); Tomic, Jordi Cruyff, Ibon Begoña (Iván Alonso 65'); Javi Moreno (Azkoitia 81'). 4-2-3-1.

Goals:
0-1. 76. Jordi Cruyff. Took Javi Moreno's pass and shot from edge of area.
0-2. 83. Tomic. Bent round Frey after Contra ran past defence and crossed.

Alavés did the impossible in the San Siro stadium to reach the last eight of the competition. With a 3-3 result from the first leg in Vitoria, the Spanish side needed to win in Italy, something even the best clubs in the world have never done. But Alavés have won through the previous three rounds in this competition drawing at home and winning away (not necessarily in that order though), and they approached the game with bravado against an Inter Milan who are going through one of the worst season's in their history.

Mané's plan was to wait and see, keeping a tight orderly defence for the first 45 minutes and looking for the counter-attack. Geli and Javi Moreno almost surprised Frey early on, with Serena and Di Biagio forcing good saves out of Herrera. On the stroke of half time Ibon Begoña cleared a header from ex Barcelona defender Laurent Blanc off the line with the keeper beaten. Twenty minutes in to the second half the Alavés manager decided that the time was ripe to go for the jugular, and he brought on two attacking players Magno and Iván Alonso to join Javi Moreno up front. The move almost backfired, and only desperate defending by Herrera and Eggen prevented Recoba from opening the scoring.

A few minutes later Alavés were unlucky not be awarded a penalty and/or a goal, as Iván Alonso was pulled over in the area and Moreno got the ball in the net from a header in the same move, but British referee Graham Barber gave a free kick to Inter. Then with thirteen minutes to go Moreno held off the defence well to set up Jordi Cruyff, and he unleashed a left foot shot from the edge of the area which took a slight deflection off Cirillo. And five minutes later, with Inter throwing everything forward, Contra charged away down the right wing and found Tomic on the edge of the box for him to bend a first time shot around Frey.

The 200 Alavés fans, conspicuous in their pink shirts, were delirious, not believing what they were seeing. At the other end the Inter fans lost their patience completely with Tardelli's side and started throwing everything, bottles, seats, flagpoles, at the players. After a brief stoppage the game resumed, with the fourth official inexplicably signalling ten minutes of injury time. But with six of them gone the outbreaks of violence resumed, with fans attacking the directors' box, and the referee decided to call it off for safety reasons. Assuming that UEFA decide that the result will stand, the 'glorioso' (as they are known locally) will go on to play Spanish rivals Rayo Vallecano in the quarter final. Spanish football is on the crest of a wave, with four teams in the last eight of UEFA and three still in the Champions League. They've never had it so good.