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UEFA Cup matches played on Thursday 25th in the first qualifying round. As we already know, both Lithuanian clubs experienced failures, while our neighbors from Latvia and Estonia, including Lithuanians, had quite different results.
One of the biggest surprises of the day was presented by long-time Estonian champions Tallinn's "Flora", after 11 consecutive defeats in European tournaments, this time having serious chances to proceed for the first time - the Estonian team defeated "Esbjerg" team in Denmark with a score of 2-1, and one of the goals was scored by Lithuanian Tomas Sirevičius.
Another Estonian club, the country's leading team Tallinn "TVMK", which had E.Juška substituted in the 86th minute and G.Širmelis playing the full match, met with the Finnish championship leader "MyPa" and played to a 1-1 draw.
Benjamin Zelkevičius-coached Liepaja's "Metalurgs" crushed the "NSI" team away - initially the Icelanders scored an own goal, later the Latvian players, including D.Miceika and M.Kalonas who played the full match, scored two goals and won. Another Latvian team, "Ventspils" with I.Stukalina and D.Bička, suffered a setback, losing with a narrow 0-1 margin to the Northern Irish "Linfield."
Meanwhile, the Belarusian "MTZ-RIPO" club, associated with the owner of FBK "Kaunas" V.Romanov, made an impressive debut in the European tournament. In Budapest, they defeated the "Ferencvaros" team 2-0 and gained a convincing advantage before the return match in Minsk, which will take place in two weeks.
All Thursday's UEFA Cup match results:
"Teuta Durres" (Albania) 3 - 1 "Široki Brijeg" (Bosnia)
"Elbasan" (Albania) 1 - 1 Skopje's "Vardar" (Macedonia)
Kumanovo "Baskimi" (Macedonia) 0 - 0 "NK Zepce" (Bosnia)
Panevezys "Ekranas" (Lithuania) 0 - 2 "Cork City" (Ireland)
Vestmannaeyro "IBV" (Iceland) 1 - 1 Torshavn "B36" (Faroe Islands)
Runavik "NSI" (Iceland) 0 - 3 Liepaja "Metalurgs" (Latvia)
"Etzella" (Luxembourg) 0 - 4 Keflavik "IB" (Iceland)
Tallinn "TVMK" (Estonia) 1 - 1 "MyPa" (Finland)
"Allianssi" (Finland) 3 - 0 "Petange" (Luxembourg)
"Saint Julia" (Andorra) 0 - 5 Bucharest "Rapid" (Romania)
Yerevan "Banants" (Armenia) 2 - 3 Tbilisi "Lokomotiv" (Georgia)
Kutaisi "Torpedo" (Georgia) 0 - 1 Borisov "Bate" (Belarus)
"Baku" (Azerbaijan) 1 - 0 "Zilina" (Slovakia)
"Esbjerg" (Denmark) 1 - 2 Tallinn "Flora" (Estonia)
"Portadown" (Northern Ireland) 1 - 2 Stavanger "Viking" (Norway)
Otachi "Nistru" (Moldova) 0 - 0 Lencoran "Khazar" (Azerbaijan)
"Longford Town" (Ireland) 2 - 0 "Carmarthen" (Wales)
"Rhyl" (Wales) 2 - 1 Klaipeda "Atlantas" (Lithuania)
"Vaduz" (Liechtenstein) 2 - 0 Chisinau "Dacia" (Moldova)
Belfast "Linfield" (Northern Ireland) 1 - 0 "Ventspils" (Latvia)
Budapest "Ferencvaros" (Hungary) 0 - 2 Minsk "MTZ-RIPO" (Belarus)
Nicosia "Omonia" (Cyprus) 3 - 0 Paola "Hibernians" (Malta)
"Mainz" (Germany) 4 - 0 Astarak "MIKA" (Armenia)
"Domagnano" (San Marino) 0 - 5 "Domzale" (Slovenia)
"Birkirkara" (Malta) 0 - 2 Nicosia "APOEL" (Cyprus)
