In Wednesday's Champions League quarterfinal matches, Arsenal managed to fight back from two goals down at home to Barcelona to secure a draw and keep their hopes alive in the competition.

The defending champions from Spain outclassed the London team for most of the first half but had failed to score by the half-time whistle.

Shortly after the break, Zlatan Ibrahimovic latched onto a long ball and managed to lob it past the reach of Arsenal goalkeeper, Manuel Almunia, putting Barcelona one goal up.

Ibrahimovic then scored his second goal in the 59th minute by rifling the ball past Almunia after a pass into the area from Xavi.

Theo Walcott pulled a goal back for Arsenal three minutes after coming on as a substitute, getting a fortunate defelection.

With time running out for Arsenal, Cesc Fabregas was brought down by Carlos Puyol in the 84th minute in the box and the Gunners' captain converted the penalty to equalize and make the final score 2-2.

In spite of Fabregas scoring from the penalty spot, he had to limp off the pitch at the end of the match. As he left Arsenal's stadium on crutches he told reporters that he feared he may have broken a bone in his leg.

Losing is good, says Russian coach

In the night's other match, after a listless first half, Diego Milito scored Inter Milan's winning goal in the 65th minute in a closely fought game at Milan's San Siro stadium.

The Argentine striker fired into the lower left-hand corner after bringing a pass from Wesley Sneijder under control at the edge of the area.

CSKA coach Leonid Slutsky said he was quite happy to have kept the score to 1-0.

"Of course 1-0 is a good result but we should have been able to do better," he said.

td/dpa/AP/afp
Editor: Rick Demarest