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Big names through to group stage

By Mitch Phillips
October 01, 2004 11:43 IST
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Most of the big names advanced safely to the inaugural group stage of the UEFA Cup after a frantic night's action on Thursday, though Parma, Real Zaragoza and particularly Rangers, cut it fine.

On a night of 39 first round, second leg matches -- plus a one-off tie -- Lazio, Newcastle United, Feyenoord and Benfica were also among the 40 teams going through.

Serie A side Udinese missed out, however, as they could only beat Panionios 1-0 at home to go down 3-2 on aggregate to the Greeks.

The night was marred by several incidents of crowd trouble, particularly in Budapest where at least one fan suffered stab wounds in clashes in the city before Millwall's game against Ferencvaros -- won 3-1 by the hosts for a 4-2 aggregate.

Scores of people were also injured in fighting between Red Star Belgrade fans and riot police after the club lost 2-1 at home to Zenit St Petersburg to go out 6-1 on aggregate. There was also trouble in the Czech Republic and Israel.

NEXT PHASE

The next phase, the draw for which takes place on Tuesday, will feature eight groups of five teams, who will each play two home and two away games.

After that, the top three teams from each group will emerge to a new knockout stage, where they will be joined by the eight third-placed finishers from the Champions League group stage.

A team who played in the UEFA Cup's first qualifying round would need to play an incredible 18 matches to reach the final while a team qualifying via the InterToto Cup could add another 10 matches to that arduous tally.

Germany's Schalke O4, who have qualified by that route for two successive seasons, stormed through 9-1 on aggregate after a 4-0 win at Latvia's Liepajas Metalurg, helped by a Mike Hanke hat-trick.

Fellow Germans VfB Stuttgart also won 4-0, at home to Ujpest (7-1) while Sochaux of France went one better, winning 5-0 at Norwegian side Stabaek (9-0).

Zaragoza, who qualified by beating Real Madrid in last season's Spanish Cup final, needed a late charge to avoid going out at the hands of Sigma Olomouc.

The Czechs led 2-0 on the night and 2-1 on aggregate with 12 minutes to go only for visiting Zaragoza to bang in three goals in eight minutes to go through 4-2 overall.

Parma, twice winners of the competition but currently bottom of Serie A, edged through 3-2 on aggregate after a goalless draw away to Slovenian side Maribor.

Rangers, whose European record has been awful in recent seasons, scraped through 4-2 on penalties after a late goal by Dado Prso earned a 1-0 win over Portugal's Maritimo in Glasgow.

Newcastle United, semi-finalists last season, emphatically ended the dream for Israel's history-making Arab side Bnei Sakhnin with a 5-1 victory in Tel Aviv. An Alan Shearer hat-trick and two for Patrick Kluivert earned the English team a 7-1 aggregate win.

Villarreal, also in the last four last season, went through as a 3-0 home win over Sweden's Hammarby earned a 5-1 aggregate.

Two goals for Fabio Liverani and one for Roberto Muzzi inside the opening half hour gave Lazio a 3-0 home win over Metalurg Donetsk, doubling their first-leg advantage.

ONE-OFF MATCH

Of the four former European champions in action only Red Star failed to progress.

Steaua Bucharest went through 4-3 on aggregate after a 2-2 draw at CSKA Sofia, Feyenoord beat Odd Grenland of Norway 4-1 (5-1) and Benfica overcame Banska Bystrica 2-0 at home (5-0).

There was also a one-off first round match as Heerenveen and Maccabi Petah Tikva finally got to meet after weeks of postponements.

A fixture clash was followed by a general strike in Israel and UEFA eventually designated Thursday's game in the Netherlands as decisive.

It was certainly that as Heerenveen eased to a 5-0 win.

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Mitch Phillips
Source: REUTERS
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