LONDON, March 15: Hapoel Tel Aviv’s astonishing UEFA Cup run continued with a 1-0 win over mighty AC Milan, while 10-man Valencia drew 1-1 with Inter Milan on a memorable night in the quarterfinals on Thursday.

Borussia Dortmund, the 1997 European champions, were held to a surprise 0-0 draw with Czech minnows Slovan Liberec, while the all-Dutch derby between PSV Eindhoven and Feyenoord ended 1-1.

Hapoel, who had knocked out another Italian team, Parma, to become the first Israeli club ever to reach the last eight of the competition, secured their win with a 32nd-minute volley from Sergei Clescenco.

“It is the greatest ever victory for an Israeli team,” Hapoel coach Dror Kashtan said.

No strangers to upsets, they dispatched Lokomotiv Moscow from the third round after a shock victory over a Chelsea side depleted by several players’ refusal to go to Israel in the wake of the Sept 11 attacks on the United States.

Those same fears for players’ safety had also led to UEFA suspending matches in Israel, prompting Hapoel to choose Nicosia as the neutral venue for the first leg, played amid tight security.

Having now won, and kept a clean sheet, Hapoel will head to the San Siro stadium next week with nothing to lose, while Milan, though still favourites to reach the semifinals, must play with the dread of conceding an away goal.

Inter’s hopes were dented on Thursday even though Marco Materazzi’s header gave them a 52nd-minute lead and Valencia lost Kily Gonzalez to a red card three minutes later.

Francisco Rufete struck the equaliser for the Spanish side, putting Cuper’s old club in the driving seat for the return leg.

Inter, who won this competition three times during the 1990s, are unlikely to make the mistake of resting their top striker Christian Vieri again.

Dortmund failed to seize the initiative in their game, which had been moved to Sparta Prague’s ground after Liberec’s own pitch had been deemed unplayable by UEFA.

The visitors managed only three shots on target, and resorted to soaking up pressure from a team that has already dumped Spain’s Real Mallorca and Celta Vigo out of the competition.

In the all-Dutch encounter, Feyenoord have the edge with an away goal before their second leg.

Pierre van Hooijdonk scored for Feyenoord, who lost a penalty shoot-out to PSV in the Dutch Cup quarter-finals last month, just before the break. Mateja Kezman equalised soon after the re-start.—Reuters