© EuroFootball.com
After a winter break, the UEFA Cup tournament battles continue. On Tuesday, the first round of the sixteenth-finals of the matches took place. Deividas Šemberas' Moscow's "CSKA" played a goalless draw with Haifa's "Maccabi", Bremen's "Werder", looking strong lately, crushed Amsterdam's "Ajax" 3-0, and four matches ended in a draw.
In the first match, "CSKA" hosted Haifa's team in Vladikavkaz. The Jews dominated most of these matches. At the beginning, Yaniv Katan hit the crossbar, later Roberto Colautti's shot went a bit over the bar, and Igor Akinfeev repelled a very dangerous Y. Katan attempt.
The best opportunity to score in Moscow's club ranks was for Yuri Zhirkov, whose shot was blocked by the crossbar. Despite the efforts of "CSKA" legionnaires Dudu and Ramon, the match ended in a goalless draw. Deividas Šemberas appeared in this match immediately after the break, replacing Yevgeny Aldonin.
Bremen's "Werder" exited the Champions League just before New Year, triumphing over Amsterdam's "Ajax" at home. The Dutch club could have lost by a much larger margin than 0-3.
Right at the start of the match, Diego hit the post from a penalty, and Miroslav Klose failed to properly shoot into the empty net. In the 24th minute, "Ajax" lost defender Olaf Lindenbergh, who got two yellow cards in three minutes. The opponent's removal gave Bremen's footballers more freedom, and they began to dominate the field completely, starting the Dutch onslaught after the break.
In the 48th minute, taking advantage of a defender's carelessness, Per Mertesacker simply "shot" the goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg from close range after a corner kick. Soon, the second, somewhat questionable goal was scored. Naldo headed in, "Ajax" player Vurnon Anita cleared the ball off the goal line, but the referees decided that the ball had crossed the goal line.
In the 71st minute, Torsten Frings scored the third goal during a counter-attack. At the end of the match, luck saved Amsterdam’s footballers from more trouble – Diego hit the crossbar from a great position, and Hugo Almeida's header hit the crossbar.
Another German team, Bayer Leverkusen, also claimed victory, defeating Blackburn at home.
At 18 minutes, the hosts were led by a precise header from defender Jan Ingwer Callsen Bracker, but the score became equal at 39 minutes when David Bentley's shot, rebounding off the post, entered the net. Just before the break, Carsten Ramelow scored from a distance (2-1), and the lead was increased to two goals by Bernd Schneider in the 56th minute.
Despite that, the hopes of the English club before the return leg were revived by Shabani Nonda's goal at the end of the match.
Glasgow's "Rangers," nurturing ambitious plans in the UEFA Cup matches, played away against Tel Aviv's "Hapoel." The hosts seemed superior in the first half and attacked more often, but the attacks from Scotland's club's wings and headers posed a significant threat to Shavit Elimelech's goal.
Just before the break, Tel Aviv's team took the lead with a fabulous penalty kick from Salim Toema, scoring from 25 meters into the top corner of the goal.
In the 52nd minute, the "Rangers" equalized the score. Barry Ferguson's penalty kick also hit the post, but Nacho Novo was the first to react and redirected the ball into the goal from a few meters away.
With about 15 minutes left to play, "Hapoel" was back in the lead. Getting the ball on the right flank, Elyanivas Barda deceived two opponents, passed the ball to the middle of the penalty area, where Barukh Dego sent it into the net.
At the end of the match, the Scots attempted to storm the opponents' goal and equalize, with Libor Sionko coming closest, heading just a few centimeters over the crossbar.
The legendary Paris "P.S.G" club, deeply mired in crisis in the French league, won 2-0 against "AEK" in Greece and laid a solid foundation for an overall victory. The goals were scored at the end of both halves.
Former Tom Danilevičius' club "Livorno" had to acknowledge the superiority of Barcelona's "Espanyol" at home.
The strong Romanian team "Dinamo" struggled at home against Lisbon's "Benfica." Unable to score throughout the match, the hosts snatched victory in the final minutes when Italian Fabrizio Miccoli scored after a pass from Rui Costa.
The goalless draws were recorded in Turkey, where "Fenerbahce" met Alkmaar's "AZ" and in the matches between Donetsk's "Shakhtar" and "Nancy," as well as "Bordeaux" and Pamplona's "Osasuna."
Statistics:
Moscow's "CSKA" 0 – 0 Haifa's "Maccabi"
Donetsk's "Shakhtar" 1 – 1 "Nancy"
81‘ [0 – 1] Marc Antoine Fortune
84‘ [1 – 1] Darijo Srna
"Bordeaux" 0 – 0 Pamplona's "Osasuna"
Leverkusen's "Bayer" 3 – 2 "Blackburn"
18‘ [1 – 0] Jan Ingwer Callsen Bracker
39‘ [1 – 1] David Bentley
43‘ [2 – 1] Carsten Ramelow
56‘ [3 – 1] Bernd Schneider
86‘ [3 – 2] Shabani Nonda
Istanbul's "Fenerbahce" 3 – 3 Alkmaar's "AZ"
15‘ [0 – 1] Demy De Zeeuw
28‘ [1 – 1] Tumer Metin
62‘ [1 – 2] Nourdin Boukhari
63‘ [1 – 3] Julian Jenner
66‘ [2 – 3] Sanli Tuncay
75‘ [3 – 3] Tumer Metin
Tel Aviv's "Hapoel" 2 – 1 Glasgow's "Rangers"
42‘ [1 – 0] Salim Toema
54‘ [1 – 1] Nacho Novo
76‘ [2 – 1] Barukh Dego
Bremen's "Werder" 3 – 0 Amsterdam's "Ajax"
48‘ [1 – 0] Per Mertesacker
54‘ [2 – 0] Naldo
71‘ [3 – 0] Torsten Frings
24‘ Olaf Lindenbergh ("Ajax") sent off
Athens's "AEK" 0 – 2 "P.S.G"
45‘ [0 – 1] Sammy Traore
86‘ [0 – 2] Bernard Mendy
"Livorno" 1 – 2 Barcelona's "Espanyol"
27‘ [0 – 1] Walter Pandiani (from a penalty)
59‘ [0 – 2] Mohamed El Yaagoubi Moha
82‘ [1 – 2] Fabio Galante
Lisbon's "Benfica" 1 – 0 Bucharest's "Dinamo"
89‘ [1 – 0] Fabrizio Miccoli
