AC Milan took until stoppage time to salvage a draw at unfashionable Portsmouth in the UEFA Cup yesterday as the Italians missed a chance to join Manchester City, CSKA Moscow and St. Etienne in qualifying for the knockout phase.
Filippo Inzaghi scored the equalizer in the second minute of injury time after Ronaldinho fired in a 30-meter free kick as seven-time European champion AC Milan hit back from two goals down to deny the Premier League side a famous victory.
CSKA -- winners in 2005 -- beat Lech Poznan 2-1, Manchester City won 2-0 at Schalke, and St. Etienne progressed to the last 32 with a 1-1 draw at Club Brugge.
Tottenham looks on track to join them after defeating NEC Nijmegen 1-0, with the top three teams in each group qualifying for the next round.
But Feyenoord, which won the competition in 2002, saw its campaign end with a 3-0 loss at Deportivo La Coruna, and Standard Liege dumped out Partizan Belgrade with a 1-0 victory to go top of Group C.
Also in Group C, Sampdoria was held 1-1 by Stuttgart.
At Fratton Park, second half strikes by Younes Kaboul and Nwankwo Kanu appeared to have put FA Cup winner Portsmouth on the way to a famous victory over star studded Milan in Group E.
But Ronaldinho, who came on with his team losing 2-0 with 16 minutes to go, won a disputed free kick after being fouled by Glen Johnson and then curved a trademark effort into the top corner.
"It was never a foul," Johnson said. "It's one of those things, I suppose. Ronaldinho can cause havoc when he's on those free-kicks, as he showed."
Inzaghi, who earlier hit the post and the bar, collected a lobbed pass from Zambrotta, controlled it first time and prodded the ball home for the equalizer with just seconds of the game remaining.
Milan remains unbeaten with seven points from three games to top the group.
