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Andrea Caracciolo’s late goal secured a point for Brescia and prevented Inter Milan from closing right up on Serie A leaders AC Milan.

Caracciolo struck six minutes from time to cancel out Samuel Eto’o’s first-half strike and give the relegation battlers an unlikely draw at Stadio Mario Rigamonti.

A dramatic end to the match also saw Caracciolo miss a penalty and then get sent off in stoppage time, minutes after Ivan Cordoba had also seen red for the visitors.

Inter now sit four points behind city rivals Milan, but the leaders have a game in hand.

Leonardo’s men face an important Champions League match against Bayern Munich next week, but they looked to be focused on the task in hand when Wesley Sneijder fired narrowly wide from 20 yards.

Inter were then in front after 18 minutes thanks to Eto’o. Sneijder swung in a corner which was headed on by Andrea Ranocchia to the Cameroon striker for a simple tap into the bottom right corner.

Another chance followed two minutes later for Goran Pandev, who cut inside from the right channel before hitting a low left-footed strike which was gathered by goalkeeper Michele Arcari.

Brescia had been outplayed so far, but Caracciolo settled nerves 10 minutes before the interval with an attempted lob which only just cleared the crossbar.

The striker had another opening early in the second half, holding off two Inter defenders before producing a left-footed shot which had to be pushed round the post by Julio Cesar.

But Inter quickly regained control and Sneijder was unfortunate to strike the post with his 25-yard drive after 55 minutes, while Arcari produced two good saves to deny Pandev as the visitors began to grow more and more wasteful.

And their inability to score a second goal came back to haunt them six minutes from time when Alessandro Diamanti’s corner was inexplicably headed back into the danger area by Cordoba, allowing Caracciolo to nod in from six yards.

Drama followed five minutes later when Cordoba gave away a penalty for a clumsy challenge on Caracciolo.

The Inter player was sent for an early bath, but Caracciolo was unable to make the spot-kick count with Cesar tipping the ball around the post.

The Brescia striker’s night then took a further dip four minutes into stoppage time when he was shown a second yellow card for kicking the ball away following a tussle with Sneijder.

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Tottenham striker Peter Crouch believes his side can win this season’s Champions League and insists he would welcome the opportunity to face tournament favourites Barcelona.

Crouch scored the only goal of the tie – in a 1-0 win at the San Siro – as Spurs beat AC Milan over two legs to reach the Champions League quarter-finals for the first time in their history.

And after disposing of the Serie A leaders, Crouch says Tottenham are supremely confident of getting all the way to the final at nearby Wembley Stadum on May 28.

Shakhtar Donetsk, Schalke and Barca have already joined Spurs in the last eight, while Manchester United, Chelsea, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid are favourites to join them next week. But Crouch believes Harry Redknapp’s side have what it takes to beat any of those teams.

“Why can’t we go all the way? Wembley is just up the road, there is not far to go now and we are starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel,” Crouch said.

“Barcelona are fantastic and a joy to watch but we have match-winners too and have shown that, when needs be, we can be resilient too. I can’t give you one reason why we can’t get to the final.

“Barcelona would be difficult – they are the team to beat, without a doubt. They gave a display the other night of what they can do. But here, on our day at White Hart Lane and with the crowd behind us, anything is possible.

“We can achieve anything now. We have good enough players to achieve big things and this result has gone a long way to proving that. If you look at the attacking talent AC have, it’s great credit to our whole team for two clean sheets and defending so well over two legs.”

Crouch is the only player in the Spurs squad who can boast previous Champions League final experience, having come on as a substitute for Liverpool when they lost the 2007 showpiece to Milan in Athens.

But the England striker believes Spurs’ current crop possess more quality than the Reds side that finished runners-up in four years ago.

“Individually we are a better team,” he said. “When we reached the final we were extremely well organised, knew our jobs inside out. But Tottenham have better individuals and better attacking flair going forward.”

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Manchester United midfielder Michael Carrick admits the thought of a potential FA Cup final derby against local rivals City is an exciting one – but insists he is solely focused on Saturday’s showdown with Arsenal.

United and City both play last-eight ties at home this weekend and there is already talk about the prospect of the two sides meeting each other at Wembley in either the semi-finals or final.

The latter scenario, as Carrick acknowledges, would be particularly mouth-watering, but he has stressed he is thinking only of the quarter-final at Old Trafford against the Gunners at the moment and that United, who are looking to bounce back from last week’s 3-1 defeat to Liverpool, must take things one game at a time as the season starts to near its finale.

“I can understand the fans getting excited about the possibility but we haven’t even thought about the chances of an all Manchester final game at Wembley yet,” Carrick said.

“We can’t look beyond this one on Saturday yet because it is so huge. We have been so busy leading up to this one that even Arsenal hadn’t been mentioned prior to Liverpool. It really is a game-by-game time of the season and that is the only way you can tackle a run-in.”

Arsenal are also aiming for a return to winning ways after being knocked out of the Champions League by Barcelona earlier this week, with the Gunners also United’s closest Premier League title challengers.

“Arsenal are obviously a very talented midfield. They showed against Barcelona in the first leg (which they won 2-1) how good they can be,” Carrick said. “They are very skilful and dangerous and play their way. They don’t change it for anyone. We have always had good games against them and pretty close games.

“They are usually good footballing games and I am sure it can be one the fans will savour. “We always have great respect for them because we are well aware that, when they are on their game, if you are not switched on they are very capable of beating the very best.

“It is going to be quite a show-down. These are the huge games you want to play in.”

United have won plenty of trophies since Carrick arrived at Old Trafford in the summer of 2006 but their last triumph in the FA Cup came in 2004.

Carrick was part of the team beaten in the final four years ago by Chelsea and the former Tottenham player is eager to get his hands on the only club honour still to evade him.

“There is a good chunk of us (in the United squad) who haven’t won the FA Cup, so we are desperate to progress,” Carrick said. “I was fortunate enough to play in a final at Wembley when I played against Chelsea in 2007 but we lost so my memories are not too fond.

“It was hard to take losing that final. I have been lucky enough to win other trophies and I am very proud of them but missing out on this one hurts. I think that goes for a lot of our squad. That’s why we are so keen to get to Wembley and win this time. A lot of us are missing that medal and we want one.”

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Arsene Wenger has confirmed he will pursue an emergency loan signing as both Wojciech Szczesny and Vito Mannone have been ruled out for six weeks, leaving Manuel Almunia as the club’s only senior goalkeeper.

Szczesny had established himself as Arsenal’s No. 1 with a number of composed performances but the Poland international sustained a finger injury in the 3-1 defeat to Barcelona on Tuesday.

Wenger confirmed on Friday that the talented 20-year-old will miss the next six weeks, meaning he is likely to be sidelined for up to six Premier League games, as well as the FA Cup semi-final should Arsenal defeat Manchester United in the competition on Saturday.

Italian Mannone, currently on loan at Hull City, has also been struck down by a thigh problem and with Lukasz Fabianski already sidelined for the remainder of the season, Arsenal are hoping to bring in reinforcements.

“We need now an experienced goalkeeper as cover for Almunia because Mannone is out for six weeks so we cannot call on him,” Wenger told the club’s official website.

“Mannone is here at the training ground having treatment but he cannot play for the next six weeks. We can call him back [from Hull City] but he is not available.

“We have Wojciech out, in my opinion for six weeks. We have Fabianski out for the rest of the season. We need absolutely some cover in goal.”

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Liverpool have confirmed that captain Steven Gerrard will be sidelined for up to four weeks after undergoing surgery to correct a groin injury.

Gerrard missed the club’s Europa League defeat to Braga on Thursday and did not even travel to Portugal with his Liverpool team-mates.

He has now been operated on and the club expect him to be absent for around one month.

A club statement on Friday read: “LFC can today confirm that Steven Gerrard has undergone successful surgery on his groin and will be out for up to four weeks. The decision was made following consultation with a specialist.”

The news means Gerrard will miss England’s Euro 2012 qualifier against Wales on March 26.

Meanwhile, midfielder Lucas says Liverpool must be patient with record signing Andy Carroll, who made his second appearance for his new club in the loss to Braga.

“Andy won every single ball in the air and that gave us a chance to step up,” Lucas said. “He provides another option because as well as being able to play on the ground we have a target man who can hold the ball and score goals.

“We are happy with what he did against Braga but he has been out for a few months and it would be unfair to put any pressure on him.”

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