Cristiano Ronaldo fluffed a third minute penalty as last night's Champions League semi-final first leg at the Nou Camp ended in stalemate.

Barcelona recovered from their early scare to dominate proceedings throughout, enjoying overwhelming possession and territorial advantage.

In total, the home side created twenty goal-scoring opportunities to the visitors' seven, but were denied by a combination of disciplined defending and an immaculate performance from Edwin Van der Sar, who made three or four vital saves on his return to first-team action following a groin injury.

The visitors' second-best scoring chance came on the half hour when last-man Márquez bundled over Ronaldo in the penalty area after a dreadful pass by Iniesta, but the referee and his assistant failed to spot what TV replayes clearly showed - that the Mexican defender had played the man and not the ball and should have been sent off.

Notwithstanding, Márquez's name did go into the book just before the interval, which means that he will miss next week's crunch return tie at Old Trafford.

Tuesday's other semi-final ended 1-1 after John Arne Riise stunned the Kop when he put through his own net - albeit under pressure from the dangerous Anelka - in the final second of the game to level the scores for Chelsea following Dirk Kuyt's first-half opener.