Away and at home
The Ukrainian champions in their field parted with the productive world with “Nancy”, and away they needed to score. Surprisingly, the French, unlike Shakhtar, did not zealously defend and left gaps. The team of Pablo Correa pressed on the gates of Shust, created the moments, but hopelessly lost in the implementation. Shakhtar took quality: in the middle of the second half, Fernandinho calmly hit the target.
And the Rangers at home fully rehabilitated for the Israeli embarrassment. Tel Aviv Hapoel destroyed - 4: 0 and 5: 2 in the sum of two meetings.
Instead of three, four
The famous “Ajax” left Bremen last week without slurping - 0: 3. Nevertheless, the legendary club did not think of throwing a white flag. However, no one expected this. In addition, the “Bremen” is now a strange period. Musicians give phenomenal concerts interspersed with outright falsehood.
A game in Amsterdam will certainly not be their asset. The owners understood the complexity of the enterprise and rushed forward from the first minutes. A promising start (Leonardo's productive shot in the 3rd minute) was replaced by bitter disappointment - after a dozen revolutions of the second hand, Hugo Almeida restored the status quo. Now, “Ajax” saved only poker! True, there was plenty of time. The merry game in the oncoming courses did not leave indifferent in the stands, and before the intermission the guests came, if not more often, then sharper. However, all their efforts were ugly squandered by the goal author. Twice, Hugo Almeida did not use one-on-one exits, and the third time his header hit near the counter.
After the intermission, the scenery changed. Already, Amsterdam residents were visiting more in someone else's penalty area and, which is typical, gave hope to the fans. In the middle of the half, Huntelar and Babel hit the target once - the pursuit continued. But time melted, and a miracle did not happen. In any case, “Ajax” out of habit left the field with his head raised and washed away the stain of Bremen's humiliation.
A similar scenario was outlined in the duel between Panathinaikos and Lance. The Greeks, having suffered an exit crash (1: 3), in various ways tried to break into the French defense. But she was deposited in the memory of the unconquered bastion.
By the way, returning to “Ajax”, we should point to a slightly spoiled, but still wonderful statistics of his relationship with German clubs. Now in 14 two-match showdowns, the Bundesliga teams have two common victories.
I opdam against
Always aiming at the attack, AZ and Fenerbhache gave another exciting performance. The first half, indicating a comfortable advantage for the Turks (2: 0), raised doubts that the Alkmarans would extend the unprecedented unbeaten run. Before the visit to Istanbul, AZ held a total of 27 games in various UEFA tournaments - and have never lost! It smelled almost until the final whistle, until Opdam in the 86th minute closed the far post after being sent from the “standard”.
A nightmare for the Belgians
Memorable Russians "Zulte-Waregem" objectively unlucky. After all, “Newcastle” - a uniform nightmare for the Belgians. A little over ten years ago, the British effortlessly dealt with “Antwerp” (10: 2), and at the turn of the century in the Intertoto Cup did not leave a stone unturned by “Lokeren” (5: 0 in the sum of two games). The beating continued in the first guest match with Zulte (3: 1), and ended in a completely innocent home Victoria - 1: 0.
End of torment
Parma suffered a uniform disaster twice in a 0: 1 loss to the Portuguese “Braga” and stopped the torment in the European arena. Meanwhile, the Portuguese lacking stars from the sky quietly turned into Italians. So, in the first round they left no inheritance for “Chievo”.
Leverkusen “Bayer”, deliberately “dried up” the game in Blackburn and kept home 3: 2. Owners who have condemned more than one moment, just right to blame themselves.
In Bucharest, “Dynamo” pretty quickly answered the endgame ball, missed in Lisbon, but did not show any other trump cards. “Benfica” skillfully and pleasure tormented Romanians, and strong-willed success was determined by two jewelry corners performed by Simau Sabroza.
PSG proved the regularity of visiting 2: 0 with AEK and with the same score took the top of the house. Thus, the Parisians continued to mash the sides of the Greek clubs, from which they never missed - 16: 0 in seven games.
Spanish invasion
Of the 16 participants in the 1/8 finals, a quarter represent the Spanish League, which in the first stage of the playoffs did not lose a single fighter. The easiest way was followed by “Seville” and “Espanyol”, who twice won “Steaua” and “Livorno” respectively. We note the shock contribution to the success of Sevillians Alexander Kerzhakov. In the first match he earned a penalty, and in the second he scored a winning goal.
The hardest part was “Osasuna”, who suffered after the 180-minute goalless battle with the “Bordeaux” goal in the final moments of overtime.
Thus, on March 8 and 14-15 the couples will continue to fight for the UEFA Cup: Newcastle - AZ, Maccabi - Espanyol, Rangers - Osasuna, Braga - Tottenham, Sevilla - Shakhtar, Lance - Bayer, PSG - Benfica and Celta - Werder Bremen. Recall, “Tottenham” because of the disqualification of “Feyenoord” went to this stage automatically.
Denis ORLOV