© EuroFootball.com
On Thursday, the remaining eight first-leg matches of the UEFA Cup were played, which again did not stand out for goals - in total only 11 goals were scored by the teams, and four teams that won their matches took the first step towards the quarter-finals.
Important victory was achieved by Moscow's "CSKA", playing without disqualified D.Šember and defeating Lisbon's "Benfica" 2-0 at home, with a two-goal advantage in the second leg. The goals for the army team were scored by V.Berezutskis and the Brazilian V.Love who remained in the team.
"Olympiakos" also achieved a victory at home, narrowly beating "Sochaux", while "GAK" managed to recover twice after conceding goals to "Middlesbrough" and ended up drawing.
After an unexpectedly missed goal in an away match against "Heerenveen", "Newcastle" bounced back in the second half and won thanks to a goal by L.Bowyer, who later received a red card. A quite unexpected victory in the away match was achieved by "Zaragoza", who won with a single goal advantage against "Fenerbahce" in Istanbul.
Three days of matches ended with no goals due to excellent goalkeeper play - "Villarreal" drew with "Dinamo" in Kiev, "Basel" failed to beat "Lille", and the German second division team "Alemannia" did not lose to Alkmaar "AZ".
Match statistics for Thursday:
"Dinamo" 0 - 0 "Villarreal"
"Grazer AK" 2 - 2 "Middlesbrough"
51' [0 - 1] Boudewijn Zenden
64' [1 - 1] Mario Bazina
66' [1 - 2] Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink
79' [2 - 2] Roland Kollmann
80' Roland Kollmann ("GAK") sent off the field
"CSKA" 2 - 0 "Benfica"
11' [1 - 0] Vasili Berezutsky
60' [2 - 0] Vagner Love
"Fenerbahce" 0 - 1 "Zaragoza"
72' [0 - 1] Maior de Aquino Alvaro
"Alemania" 0 - 0 "AZ"
"Basel" 0 - 0 "Lille"
"Heerenveen" 1 - 2 "Newcastle"
24' [1 - 0] Klaas-Jan Huntelaar
69' [1 - 1] Alan Shearer
82' [1 - 2] Lee Bowyer
86' Lee Bowyer ("Newcastle") sent off the field
"Olympiakos" 1 - 0 "Sochaux"
29' [1 - 0] Giannakis Okkas
