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| August 16, 2002 | Friday | Jamadi-us-Saani 6, 1423 |
Manchester United suffer shock loss
PARIS, Aug 15: English giants Manchester United slumped to one of their worst ever European defeats on Wednesday when Hungarian minnows Zalaegerszegi pulled off a shock last minute 1-0 win in the first leg of their Champions League qualifying round clash.
Twenty-one-year old substitute Bela Koplarovics, who had only been on the pitch for seven minutes, struck the decisive goal in the first minute of injury time when he converted a low cross from Tamas Szamosi past Roy Carroll from close range.
But it will be United substitute Phil Neville who will have to take a huge share of the blame after letting a right wing cross sail over his head which allowed Szamosi to break clear.
To make matters worse, United, playing without injured 30-million-pound Rio Ferdinand, lost defender Wes Brown with an ankle injury after just five minutes and Neville took his place.
The United manager, who now must hope that his team can overcome the deficit in the second leg, also said that the injury to Brown was also causing concern.
Elsewhere, AC Milan did their best to join United in the dunces’ corner. The Italians needed a 68th minute goal from Filippo Inzaghi to scrape a 1-0 win against Slovan Liberec.
But the goal was a fortunate one with Czech keeper Zbynek Hauzr making a mess of a shot from Brazilian Serginho which allowed Inzhagi to strike his 34th career European goal
Bayern Munich came away from Yugoslavia with a 3-0 win against Partizan Belgrade 3-0 with goals from Michael Tarnat, Jens Jeremies and Peruvian international Claudio Pizarro.
Scottish champions Celtic bounced back from conceding a second minute goal to defeat Swiss title holders FC Basle 3-1 at Parkhead.
Sweden goal machine Henrik Larsson led the fightback from the penalty spot before second half strikes from Chris Sutton and Momo Sylla, who struck two minutes from time, eased Celtic worries after Christian Gimenez stunned the Glasgow giants in the second minute.
However, late in the game Larsson missed a penalty which means the Swiss will still harbour hopes of stealing a result in the return.
In Sarajevo, Kieron Dyer scored after 55 minutes to give Bobby Robson’s Newcastle a 1-0 away win against Zejeznicar.
One of Robson’s former clubs Barcelona also took a huge step towards the lucrative group stages of the competition with a 3-0 home win over Legia Warsaw of Poland.
Frank De Boer opened the scoring after just eight minutes before Juan Ramon Riquelme and Phillip Cocu added two more in the last ten minutes.
In Portugal, Inter Milan put aside the controversy over the future of Brazilian striker Ronaldo to record a 0-0 draw at Sporting Lisbon.
Champions League 3rd qualifying round results
In Donetsk:
Shakhtar Donetsk 1 Club Bruges 1
In Sofia:
Levski Sofia 0 Dinamo Kiev 1
In Sarajevo:
Zeljeznicar Sarajevo 0 Newcastle United 1
In Milan:
AC Milan 1 Slovan Liberec 0
In Belgrade:
Partizan Belgrade 0 Bayern Munich 3
In Budapest:
Zalaegerszeg 1 Manchester United 0
In Glasgow:
Celtic 3 Basle 1
In Graz:
Graz AK 0 Lokomotiv Moscow 2
In Trondheim:
Rosenborg Trondheim 1 Brondby 0
In Barcelona:
Barcelona 3 Legia Warsaw 0
In Lisbon:
Sporting 0 Inter Milan 0
In Sofia:
Maccabi Haifa 2 Sturm Graz 0
In Nicosia:
APOEL Nicosia 2 AEK Athens 3
In Genk:
Genk 2 Sparta Prague 0
In Rotterdam:
Feyenoord 1 Fenerbahce 0
In Oporto:
Boavista 0 AJ Auxerre 1
—Reuters
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