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| February 25, 2006 | Saturday | Muharram 26, 1427 |
Bittersweet experience for French, English clubs
PARIS, Feb 24: French and English clubs had a bittersweet night on Thursday as the UEFA Cup, Europe’s second-tier club competition, was whittled down to the final 16 teams.
AS Roma beat Belgium’s FC Bruges 4-2 on aggregate however to go through and will be confident of winning their 11th consecutive Italian league match against Lazio at the weekend to claim an all-time Serie A record.
Roma’s next UEFA Cup opponents will be England’s Middlesbrough who claimed an impressive scalp in VfB Stuttgart although they lost 1-0 at home.
Their 2-1 victory in Germany in the first leg was enough to see them through on away goals and ensure an English club reached the next round.
Bolton however went out at French club Marseille. Bolton manager Sam Allardyce must have been dreaming of continued interest in the competition with Stelios Giannakopoulos putting Bolton ahead in the first half.
However Marseille’s Franck Ribery got the equaliser just before half-time and then a Tal Ben Haim own goal with about 20 minutes left ensured Marseille earned their passage.
Of the five French clubs in action, three went through and two fell by the wayside.
Strasbourg managed to beat Bulgarians Litex Lovech over the two legs and Lille got the better of Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk.
Lens and Monaco were not so lucky. Lens were ousted by Italian side Udinese and Switzerland’s Basel reached the last 16 at the expense of Monaco.
Results:
Steaua Bucharest 0 Heerenveen 1
Steaua win 3-2 on aggregate
Zenit St Petersburg 2 Rosenborg 1
Zenit win 4-1
Shakhtar Donetsk 0 Lille 0
Lille win 3-2
Palermo 1 Slavia Prague 0
2-2 on aggregate, Palermo win on away goals
Rapid Bucharest 2 Hertha Berlin 0
Bucharest win 3-0
Levski Sofia 2 FC Bratislava 0
Sofia win 3-0
SV Hamburg 2 FC Thun 0
Hamburg win 2-1
Strasbourg 0 Litex Lovech 0
Strasbourg win 2-0
Middlesbrough 0 VfB Stuttgart 1
2-2 on aggregate, Middlesbrough win on away goals
Marseille 2 Bolton 1
Marseille win 2-1
Monaco 1 FC Basel 1
Basel win 2-1
Lens 1 Udinese 0
Udinese win 3-1
AS Roma 2 FC Bruges 1
Roma win 4-2
AZ Alkmaar 2 Real Betis 1 aet
Betis win 3-2
FC Sevilla 2 Lokomotiv Moscow 0
Sevilla win 3-0
Espanyol 0 Schalke 04 3
Schalke win 5-1.—Agencies
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