Night of disgrace at San Siro as Chelsea march on

The Champions League quarter-final between Inter and Milan was abandoned after 73 minutes last night after Milan's goalkeeper Dida was hit by one of dozens of flares thrown on the pitch at the San Siro stadium.

Inter, trailing 1-0 on the night and 3-0 on aggregate to their city rivals, had a goal disallowed by German referee Markus Merk shortly before flares and bottles were thrown on to the pitch by Inter fans.

Merk stopped play and, after leading the players off, resumed the game 25 minutes later for just 30 more seconds. A second hail of missiles forced him to order the players off again and call off the game.

Milan may yet be awarded the tie by UEFA and reach the semi-finals, as Chelsea did in Munich.

Although Bayern Munich won the second leg of their quarter-final 3-2, Chelsea scraped through 6-5 on aggregate.

They will now meet Liverpool or Juventus in the semis, while the other semi-final will be between either Milan or Inter against PSV Eindhoven or Olympique Lyon. The two remaining quarters will be played today.

Bayern, seeking to overturn their first-leg defeat in their 100th Champions League match, had three good chances to score in the first half but the only goal before the break was scored by Frank Lampard, whose 30-metre shot took a sharp deflection off Lucio with the ball squirming past Oliver Kahn and into the net.

Chelsea's opening goal from Joe Cole in last week's first leg in London also took a deflection off the Brazilian defender.

Michael Ballack was guilty of Bayern's worst miss, skying the ball high and wide from inside the area.

The German side levelled, however, after 65 minutes when Claudio Pizarro scored from point-blank range when a header from Ballack came back off the post after being parried by Chelsea keeper Peter Cech.

Didier Drogba appeared to have given Chelsea victory with a fine near-post header after 80 minutes, but goals from Paulo Guerrero after 90 minutes and Mehmet Scholl four minutes into stoppage time gave Bayern an ultimately hollow victory.

Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho, serving the second half of his two-match suspension, was in the stadium when the match kicked off but soon returned to his hotel room to watch the match from afar.

Bayern are moving to a new stadium at the end of the season, making this the last night of European football at the Olympiastadion.

Milan in effect maintained their dominance over Inter, getting the better of them for the third time this season, although it remains to be seen what UEFA decide to do.

It could order the entire match to be replayed, or just the last 17 minutes behind closed doors.

The only goal came after 30 minutes when Andriy Shevchenko curled in a superb strike with his left foot to put Milan into a commanding lead - but he was fortunate to still be on the field after appearing to head-butt Inter defender Marco Materazzi inside the first five minutes.

The game came to its premature end after Dida was hit on the back of a shoulder by a flare thrown from Inter fans furious over Merk's decision to disallow what seemed to be a perfectly legal headed goal from Esteban Cambiasso.

After that, the night descended into chaos. UEFA's website reported that "referee Merk will now submit his report to the UEFA Control and Disciplinary Body, who will deal with the case".

This is the second time this season that a Champions League match in Italy has been abandoned following crowd disorder.

In September Roma's game at home to Dynamo Kiev was halted after referee Anders Frisk was hit by a missile thrown from the crowd.

"There were two or three hundred hooligans who were involved in throwing the flares," said Milan police chief Paolo Scarpi.

"They have been caught on video camera - they were the usual hotheads from the Inter sector."

Quarter-Finals - 2nd Legs