Emmanuel Adebayor scored a decisive away goal on a night that so nearly ended in humiliation for Tottenham as they slipped to a 4-1 Europa League defeat at Inter Milan, yesterday.

Tottenham crushed Inter 3-0 in the first leg, but the Italian giants completely outclassed Andre Villas-Boas' shellshocked side in the first 90 minutes of this game.

Antonio Cassano put Inter ahead after 20 minutes and Rodrigo Palacio made it 2-0 after the break before William Gallas stabbed the ball into his own net to level the tie at 3-3 on aggregate.

Inter laid siege to the Spurs goal in the hunt for a killer fourth, but the visitors held on and Adebayor scored against the run of play in the first period of extra-time.

Inter scored again through Ricardo Alvarez to bring the tie level on aggregate at 4-4, but Adebayor's away goal was enough to see Spurs through to the last eight of the Europa League.

The match action was a thrilling advert for the often-derided competition, but reports of racist abuse from the home fans towards Adebayor have left a sour taste.

Fernando Torres fired Chelsea into the quarterfinals but also missed a penalty as last season's Champions League winners overcame Steaua Bucharest in the last-16 clash at Stamford Bridge to win 3-1 on the night.

Chelsea had to overturn a 1-0 first-leg deficit to progress and levelled the tie through Juan Mata after 33 minutes, only for Vlad Chiriches to score on the stroke of half-time when the Blues failed to clear a corner.

The away goal meant Chelsea needed to score twice to be included in today's last-eight draw and captain John Terry headed in after 58 minutes and Torres netted after 71 minutes to seal victory before the Spaniard hit the bar with an 87th-minute penalty.

Papiss Cisse repeated his injury-time heroics to head Newcastle into the quarterfinals as ten-man Anzhi Makhachkala finally succumbed to a 1-0 loss.

The Senegal international, who fired the Magpies to a 2-1 Premier League win over Stoke on Sunday with a 92nd-minute strike, had to wait two minutes longer to power home Sylvain Marveaux's inviting cross with the final touch of an intriguing contest.

Ten-man Basel produced a desperate defensive display to lose 1-0 but book their place in the quarterfinals of the Europa League 2-1 on aggregate at the expense of a wasteful Zenit St Petersburg.

Benfica eased into the quarterfinals as they proved too strong for Bordeaux in the south of France to win 3-2.

Libor Kozak scored twice in the opening ten minutes and completed a hat-trick late on as Lazio turned on the style behind closed doors to reach the quarterfinals as they triumphed 3-1.

Armed with a 2-0 lead from the first leg in Germany, Lazio made an ideal start and left Stuttgart's hopes in tatters before they even had a chance to settle.

Two extra-time goals by Jose Rondon and Vladimir Dyadyun steered Rubin Kazan into the quarters with a 2-0 victory over Levante in Moscow.

And substitute Salih Ucan was the hero as Fenerbahce did enough to advance with a home draw against Viktoria Plzen.