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After playing the second leg of the UEFA Cup quarterfinals on Thursday, the teams that made it to the semifinals were revealed - these were the "Schalke" and "Sevilla" clubs, maintaining their advantage from the first leg, the Romanian derby with an away goal won by "Steaua", and "Middlesbrough", managing to unbelievably overturn a three-goal deficit and dramatically eliminate the "Basel" team.
"Middlesbrough" lost the first leg against "Basel" in Switzerland with a score of 0-2, and in the 23rd minute of the second leg, the English club's situation became even more complicated when Boris Smiljanic kicked the ball towards the far post after a penalty, leading his team to score an important away goal.
The hosts needed four goals already, but their hope was restored after ten minutes when Mark Viduka sent a precise shot into the goal. Although "Basel" maintained their two-goal advantage until halftime, in the middle of the second half, M. Viduka once again broke into the penalty area and confused the Swiss goalkeeper to score the second goal.
In the 73rd minute, "Basel" was reduced to ten men when Daniel Majstorovic was sent off with a second yellow card, and soon after the English team took advantage of their numerical superiority - within six minutes, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink scored a powerful shot from the penalty area. However, the hosts still needed another goal, which they finally got in the last minute from a substitute on the field, Massimo Maccarone, who capitalized on a rebound off the goalkeeper after Fabio Rochemback's shot, securing "Middlesbrough's" ticket to the semifinals.
As expected, the duel between the two Bucharest teams was very intense. Having scored an away goal in the first leg, the "Steaua" players at home tried to defend their goal against "Rapid" attacks, which they did successfully - the match ended goalless, and with the aggregate result being equal, "Steaua" advanced to the semifinals due to the away goal.
There were also intrigues in the other two matches, but the East European clubs failed to take revenge for their previous defeats - St. Petersburg's "Zenit", featuring Robertas Poskus, dominated at home against the "Sevilla" team in very poor weather conditions, while Sofia's "Levski" surprisingly took the lead against the local "Schalke" after Emilio Angelov's goal, but after the break, Lincoln scored to help the hosts secure a draw and advance to the next stage.
Second leg quarterfinals statistics
St. Petersburg 1 - 1 (First leg 1-4, aggregate 2-5) 50` [1 - 0] Young-Min Hyun 63` [1 - 1] Kepa Blanco 65` Kepa Blanco ("Sevilla"), 68` Ivica Krizanac ("Zenit") sent off 73` Daniel ("Sevilla") missed penalty R. Poskus ("Zenit") played the full match
Bucharest "Steaua" 0 - 0 Bucharest "Rapid" (First leg 1-1, aggregate 1-1)
Gelsenkirchen 1 - 1 Sofia (First leg 3-1, aggregate 4-2) 24` [0 - 1] Stanislav Angelov 58` [1 - 1] Lincoln
"Middlesbrough" 4 - 1 "Basel" (First leg 0-2, aggregate 4-3) 23` [0 - 1] Eduardo Da Silva 33` [1 - 1] Mark Viduka 57` [2 - 1] Mark Viduka 79` [3 - 1] Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink 90` [4 - 1] Massimo Maccarone 73` Daniel Majstorovic ("Basel") sent off
UEFA Cup Semifinal matchups
"Sevilla" - "Schalke" "Steaua" - "Middlesbrough"
