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| November 24, 2001 | Saturday | Ramazan 8, 1422 |
Shock defeats for Italian giants
PARIS, Nov 23: Struggling English Premiership side Ipswich Town and unheralded French outfit Lille handed out shock 1-0 defeats to Italian aristocrats Inter Milan and Fiorentina in Thursday’s UEFA Cup third round first leg matches.
Ipswich, who had several of their first team missing through injury including European Cup winner Finidi George, edged Inter at home thanks to a fine header by substitute Alun Armstrong, who was suffering from a severe stomach virus, though they will not be looking forward to facing an Inter with Ronaldo and Christian Vieri in a fortnight.
Ipswich manager George Burley refused to accept the plaudits for sending on Armstrong as a masterstroke as the Premiership’ second from bottom club defeated the second placed side in Serie A.
Lille, who were not embarassed in their Champions League first round matches, beat Fiorentina 1-0 in Italy with a goal from striker Dagui Bakari in the 24th minute to give them a real chance of progressing after the home leg.
However Roberto Mancini, Fiorentina’s coach, believed his injury-hit and cash-strapped side had deserved better.
Only AC Milan of Italy’s quartet performed anywhere near respectably as they beat Portuguese giants Sporting Lisbon 2-0 at home while Parma’s disappointing season continued when they were held 1-1 at home by the less than flashy Danish team of Brondby.
While Lille were celebrating a famous victory their much biggerspending league rivals Lyon were left stunned by perhaps the most astonishing result of the evening, a 4-1 humbling in Belgium by FC Bruges.
Lyon coach Jacques Santini, whose position must be in some doubt after his outlay of millions of dollars has been a signal failure, held his hands up.
Elsewhere Leeds United’s English international goalkeeper Nigel Martyn inspired his lacklustre team-mates to a second-half revival after he made a fine double save in the 67th minute - stopping Ricardo Nunez’ penalty and then blocking Ricardo Cabanas’ follow-up.
Goals from Ian Harte, a fine curling freekick, and Alan Smith, his first in three months, gave them a come from behind 2-1 away win over Grasshopper Zurich, who deserved better even if the English side were missing their Australian stars Harry Kewell and Mark Viduka.
Whether Leeds will be joined in the next round by the two so-called Scottish giants Celtic and Rangers is very much in the balance after the former went down to a 1-0 defeat by two-time Champions League finalists Valencia in Spain and the latter ground out an unimpressive 0-0 draw with French side PSG in Glasgow.
Thursday’s results:
At Valencia, Spain
Valencia 1 Glasgow Celtic 0
At Glasgow
Rangers 0 Paris St Germain 0
At Milan
AC Milan 2 Sporting Lisbon 0
At Florence, Italy
Fiorentina 0 Lille 1
At Ipswich, England
Ipswich 1 Inter Milan 0
At Rotterdam, Netherlands
Feyenoord 1 SC Freiburg 0
At Athens
AEK Athens 3 Lovech 2
At Zurich
Grasshopper Zurich 1 Leeds United 2
At Bruges, Belgium
FC Bruges 4 Lyon 1
At Geneva, Switzerland
Servette Geneva 0 Hertha Berlin 0
At Liberec, Czech Republic
Liberec 3 Real Mallorca 1
At Copenhagen
FC Copenhagen 0 Borussia Dortmund 1
At Parma, Italy
Parma 1 Brondby 1
At Salonika, Greece
PAOK 3 PSV Eindhoven 2.—AFP
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