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On Thursday, the first seven UEFA Cup round of 16 matches were played, with better results for the visitors - they secured four victories and played three draws. One match between the clubs "Steaua" and "Villarreal" in Bucharest was postponed to next Wednesday.
Once again playing without the suspended D. Semberas, "CSKA" achieved a valuable draw away in Belgrade against local team "Partizan". The Army Men took the lead after a goal by E. Aldonin, but with seven minutes left, the hosts earned a penalty kick, converted by I. Tomic.
The "Newcastle" club took a significant step towards the quarterfinals with a convincing 3-1 victory in Greece against "Olympiacos", who were celebrating their 80th birthday. The same score ended the match in Ukraine, where "Shakhtar" had to acknowledge the superiority of the "AZ" team from Alkmaar.
English club "Middlesbrough" avoided a disaster, trailing by three goals at home after 65 minutes in a match against "Sporting", but later scored twice to keep their minimal hopes alive for the second leg match in Lisbon.
The French club clash ended with a victory for "Auxerre" away against "Lille", while "Sevilla" at home failed to break the resistance of the "Parma" club. The second leg matches will take place on March 16-17, while the second leg match between "Steaua" and "Villarreal" is postponed to March 20.
Statistics of the first round of 16 matches
"Partizan" 1 - 1 "CSKA Moskva" 17' [0 - 1] Eugeny Aldonin 83' [1 - 1] Ivan Tomic (pen.)
"Olympiacos" 1 - 3 "Newcastle" 12' [0 - 1] Alan Shearer (pen.) 16' [1 - 1] Predrag Djordjevic (pen.) 34' [1 - 2] Laurent Robert 69' [1 - 3] Patrick Kluivert
11' Grigorios Georgatos, 44' Thanassis Kostoulas (both "Olympiacos") sent off
"Shakhtar" 1 - 3 "AZ Alkmaar" 27' [0 - 1] Robin Nelisse 45' [1 - 1] Francelino Matuzalem 50' [1 - 2] Joris Mathijsen 90' [1 - 3] Kenneth Perez (pen.)
"Austria" 1 - 1 "Zaragoza" 32' [1 - 0] Sigurd Rushfeldt 74' [1 - 1] Bortolini Savio
"Middlesbrough" 2 - 3 "Sporting" 49' [0 - 1] Alexandre Pedro Barbosa 53' [0 - 2] Da Silva Liedson 65' [0 - 3] Rodolph Douala 79' [1 - 3] Joseph-Desire Job 86' [2 - 3] Chris Riggott
"Lille" 0 - 1 "Auxerre" 45' [0 - 1] Kanga Akale
"Sevilla" 0 - 0 "Parma"
