By ROB HARRIS
updated 6:54 p.m. ET Feb. 21, 2012
Chelsea fared nearly as badly as Arsenal on its trip to Italy, leaving English clubs in danger of missing the Champions League quarterfinals for the first time since 1996.
Ezequiel Lavezzi scored two goals and Edinson Cavani had one as Napoli rallied from an early deficit for a 3-1 victory Tuesday night in the first leg of the total-goals, second-round series.
In the earlier game, Pontus Wernbloom scored on the last play as CSKA Moscow held visiting Real Madrid to a 1-1 tie.
"We will analyze strongly what we did wrongly because a couple of things need to get better," Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas said.
Last week, Arsenal lost 4-0 at AC Milan. England's two other teams in Europe's top club competition, Manchester United and Manchester City, were eliminated in the group phase. The last time there were no English clubs in the quarterfinals was 1995-96, when Blackburn was the only representative and finished last in its first-round group.
"It's not an ideal situation but we are still in the Champions League and we will fight to the end," Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech said.
Chelsea is winless in five straight matches in all competitions (0-2-3), likely to anger owner Roman Abramovich. The Blues' troubles grew worse before the kickoff, when it said captain John Terry will need knee surgery and will be sidelined for up to six weeks.
Villas-Boas gambled by not starting with the experienced trio of Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard and Michael Essien.
Only three teams have come back from two goals down in a second leg.
"I want to be the fourth," Villas-Boas said. "We're sure we can turn it around at the Bridge."
It also was a disappointing night for former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho, in his second season in charge of Real Madrid.
At Moscow, Wernbloom stabbed home a ball that was flicked on by Madrid defender Alvaro Arbeloa in the third minute of stoppage time. In a game played in freezing temperatures on artificial turf at Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium, Cristiano Ronaldo put Real Madrid ahead in the 28th minute with his 36th goal of the season.
"Our opponents were tough and the match was hard," Madrid coach Jose Mourinho said. "Our opponents did very little to score but got their goal. They were very happy to get that. We had our chances, especially in the second half, but we didn't convert them. In the end ... I'm satisfied with the result."
In the final first-leg games Wednesday, Bayern Munich is at Basel, and Inter Milan is at Marseille.
___
MILAN (AP) ? Struggling Bologna beat Fiorentina 2-0 on goals by Alessandro Diamanti in the 30th minute and Gaston Ramirez in the 43rd, boosting its chances of Serie A survival.
Bologna and Fiorentina (both 7-9-7) each have 28 points, even above the relegation zone.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/46469158/ns/sports-soccer/
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