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| November 3, 2001 | Saturday | Shaba’an 16, 1422 |
Chelsea pay heavy price for first leg absentees
PARIS, Nov 2: English side Chelsea Thursday paid the price for the refusal of six of their players to play in the first leg match in Israel when they were dumped out of the UEFA Cup by Hapoel Tel-Aviv.
Chelsea could only draw the second leg 1-1 at Stamford Bridge despite having a wealth of possession and went out 3-1 on aggregate having lost 2-0 in the first leg, when six key players including French internationals Emmanuel Petit and Marcel Desailly and England’s Graeme Le Saux refused to travel because of the security situation in the Middle East.
Milan Osterc gave the visitors the lead 10 minutes from half time with a neat finish befoe Chelsea substitute Gianfranco Zola levelled the scores with a right foot curler 26 minutes from time.
Poor finishing from the English Premiership club and heroic goalkeeping by Hapoel goalkeeper Shavit Elimelech prevented further Chelsea goals.
English Premiership challengers Leeds survived a scare at modest French club Troyes, who were winning the tie on away goals before a Robbie Keane header made the score 3-2 to Troyes on the night but 6-5 to Leeds on aggregate.
Two other big name casualties were Spanish side Celta Vigo, thrashed 3-0 by Slovan Liberec of the Czech Republic, who went through 3-1 on aggregate.
Dutch giants Ajax were shocked when FC Copenhagen beat them 1-0 in Amsterdam and went through to the third round.
But the beaten finalists in last year’s more prestigious Champions League, Valencia, had no such problems, as the Spanish giants thrashed Poland’s Legia Warsaw 6-1 to cruise through 7-2 overall.
AC Milan brushed aside CSKA Sofia, winning 1-0 in Bulgaria through a Filippo Inzaghi strike, and 3-0 on aggregate.
Another well-financed Italian side, Parma, shrugged off the resignation Wednesday of coach Renzo Ulivieri to hold Dutch side Utrecht 0-0 at home for a 3-1 win over both legs.
Despite Troyes’ exit, France’s other representatives, Paris St Germain and Bordeaux, both qualified after overcoming Rapid Vienna of Austria and Belgium’s Standard Liege respectively.
Sporting Lisbon will be a side to watch after crushing hapless Swedes Halmstads 6-1 in the Portuguese capital for a 7-1 aggregate win and perennial European under-achievers Rangers showed they mean business in this competition by winning 4-1 away to Dynamo Moscow for a 7-2 aggregate victory for the Scots.
English side Ipswich scored three times in the last 21 minutes in Sweden to eliminate Helsingborgs 3-1 on the night and on aggregate.
Hans Eklund put the Swedes ahead but Hermann Hreidarsson volleyed home in the 69th minute and Marcus Stewart scored twice, in the 81st and 88th minute to complete an impressive win.
Thursday’s second leg results:
In Valencia:
Valencia 6 Legia Warsaw 1
(Valencia win 7-2 on aggregate).
In London:
Chelsea 1 Hapoel Tel Aviv 1
(Hapoel win 3-1).
In Amsterdam:
Ajax Amsterdam 0 FC Copenhagen 1
(Copenhagen win 1-0).
In Lisbon:
Sporting Lisbon 6 Hamstad 1
(Sporting win 7-1).
In Helsingborg:
Helsingborg 1 Ipswich Town 3
(Ipswich Town win 3-1).
In Parma:
Parma 0 Utrecht 0
(Parma win 3-1).
In Brussels:
Club Bruges 5 CSKA Kiev 0
(Club Bruges win 7-0).
In Innsbruck:
Tirol Innsbruck 2 Fiorentina 2
(Fiorentina win 4-2).
In Geneva:
Servette 1 Real Zaragoza 0
(Servette win 1-0).
In Troyes:
Troyes 3 Leeds United 2
(Leeds United win 6-5).
In Brussels:
Standard Liege 0 Girondins Bordeaux 2
(Bordeaux win 4-0).
In Copenhagen:
Brondby 5 Varteks Varazdin 0
(Brondby win 6-3).
In Liberec:
Slovan Liberec 3 Celta Vigo 0
(Slovan win 4-3).
In Enschede:
Twente Enschede 4 Grasshoppers 2
(Grasshoppers win 6-5).
In Vienna:
Rapid Vienna 2 Paris St Germain 2
(Paris St Germain win 6-2).
In Moscow:
Dynamo Moscow 1 Rangers 4
(Rangers win 7-2).
In Berlin:
Hertha Berlin 2 Viking Stavanger 0
(Hertha Berlin win 3-0).
In Tel Aviv:
Maccabi Tel Aviv 2 Roda JC Kerkrade 1
(Roda win 5-3).
In Sofia:
CSKA Sofia 0 AC Milan 1
(AC Milan win 3-0).
In Zurich:
St Gallen 1 SC Freiburg 4
(SC Freiburg win 4-2).
In Pribram:
Mirila Pribram 2 PAOK Salonika 2
(PAOK Salonika win 8-3).—AFP/Reuters
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