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Although the UEFA Cup group stage matches began with one match on Wednesday, all other first round matches took place on Thursday. It was a very different day for French clubs - "Monaco" and "Lens" suffered sensational failures, "Marseille" and "Strasbourg" achieved excellent victories, while "Rennes" had to admit defeat in the last minutes. No major surprises were recorded in all other matches.
One of the biggest surprises of the tournament was Stavanger's "Viking" meeting with the 2004 Champions League finalist "Monaco" at home and sensationally winning with a minimal lead after an 18th minute goal by T. Nhleko. The visitors from France could have equalized, but in the 89th minute, D. Gigliotti's header hit the crossbar. In the other A group match, "Hamburger" won against Sofia's "CSKA" thanks to R. van der Vaart's only goal.
In Group B, where on Wednesday, Moscow's "Lokomotiv" suffered a home defeat to Barcelona's "Espanyol", a difficult victory was achieved by Italy's "Palermo" away against Petach Tikva's "Maccabi". Sicilians took the lead thanks to F. Brienza, and although O. Golan equalized at the end of the first half, the visitors celebrated victory thanks to a goal by the team's most productive defender C. Terlizzi in the 77th minute.
The group stage started catastrophically for the "Lens" team, which suffered a massacre in Bucharest against "Steaua". Right at the beginning of the match, Romanians V. Iacob and D. Goian led their team forward, N. Dica increased the lead before the break, later he scored again in the middle of the second half, and the guests finished the match with ten men due to A. Dindane's removal from the field. Unfortunately, no surprises were created by "Halmstad" with T. Zvirgzdauskas at home - the Swedish club had to recognize the superiority of Berlin's "Hertha".
In Group D, the victories were celebrated by the guests - last year's semi-finalist Alkmaar's "AZ" overcame local club "Dnipro" after fierce competition in Dnipropetrovsk. The Georgian S. Arveladze took the Dutch team ahead, T. Sektioui doubled the score in the second half, and S. Matyukhin's goal was not enough for the Ukrainians. "Middlesbrough" also had a difficult victory in Switzerland, defeating Zurich's "Grasshoppers" resistance with a goal by J. F. Hasselbaink.
In Group E, the "Roma" team attempting to emerge from a crisis had to work hard - in Norway, the Italian club took the lead against "Tromso" with S. Kuffour's goal, but O. M. Arst soon equalized. The victory for the Italians was decided by defender L. Cufre's goal six minutes before the end of the match. Meanwhile, French league strugglers "Strasbourg" began the group stage with an unexpected convincing victory away against "Basel" who had played with ten men for an hour.
One of the most interesting matches of the day took place in Moscow, where the Cup winners "CSKA" with D. Sembrant faced the "Marseille" team. After two defensive mistakes in the first half, the French took the lead by 2-0, and in the second half, Marseille goalkeeper F. Barthez saved S. Ignashevich's penalty. V. Love further softened the score in the 80th minute, but the "army men" could not avoid defeat. In the second group match, Bucharest's "Dinamo" played a goalless draw against "Heerenveen" at home.
It seemed that the match between "Rennes" and "Stuttgart" in Group G would end without goals, but in the 87th minute, acrobatically shot by T. Hitzlsperger, the ball rebounded from J. D. Tomasson and entered the goal, and in the last minute Serb D. Ljuboja added an 11-meter penalty. The group matches were started with a victory by the Ukrainian champions Donetsk's "Shakhtar", who defeated Saloniki's "PAOK" at home. The only goal from the penalty spot was scored by the Brazilian Brandao.
Intriguing matches took place in Istanbul - there, the local "Besiktas" played against the "Bolton" club and took the lead in the 7th minute when Brazilian legionnaire Ailton scored a superb goal into the top corner of the net. However, Mexican J. Borgetti equalized the score in the middle of the first half after a pass from E. H. Diouf, so the match ended in a draw. This result was favorable to St. Petersburg's "Zenit", who won 2-1 against Guimaraes's "Vitoria" at home. In the winning team, Lithuanian R. Poškus, who returned to the field after an injury, played from the 66th minute.
Thursday's match statistics:
Group A:
Sofia's "CSKA" (Bulgaria) 0 - 1 "Hamburger" (Germany)
58' [0 - 1] Rafael van der Vaart
Stavanger's "Viking" (Norway) 1 - 0 "Monaco" (France)
18' [1 - 0] Toni Nhleko
Group B:
Petach Tikva's "Maccabi" (Israel) 1 - 2 "Palermo" (Italy)
11' [0 - 1] Franco Brienza
45' [1 - 1] Omer Golan
77' [1 - 2] Christian Terlizzi
Group C:
Bucharest's "Steaua" (Romania) 4 - 0 "Lens" (France)
13' [1 - 0] Victoras Iacob
16' [2 - 0] Dorin Goian
43' [3 - 0] Nicolae Dica
63' [4 - 0] Nicolae Dica
77' Aruna Dindane ("Lens") sent off
"Halmstad" (Sweden) 0 - 1 Berlin's "Hertha" (Germany)
67' [0 - 1] Andreas Neuendorf
Group D:
Dnipropetrovsk's "Dnipro" (Ukraine) 1 - 2 Alkmaar's "AZ" (Netherlands)
13' [0 - 1] Shota Arveladze
52' [0 - 2] Tarik Sektioui
69' [1 - 2] Serhiy Matyukhin
Zurich's "Grasshoppers" (Switzerland) 0 - 1 "Middlesbrough" (England)
10' [0 - 1] Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink
Group E:
"Tromso" (Norway) 1 - 2 "Roma" (Italy)
35' [0 - 1] Samuel Kuffour
42' [1 - 1] Ole Martin Arst
84' [1 - 2] Leandro Cufre
89' Simone Perrotta ("Roma") sent off
"Basel" (Switzerland) 0 - 2 "Strasbourg" (France)
15' [0 - 1] Amara Diane
25' [0 - 2] Arthur Boka
31' Patrick Mueller ("Basel") sent off
Group F:
Bucharest's "Dinamo" (Romania) 0 - 0 "Heerenveen" (Netherlands)
Moscow's "CSKA" (Russia) 1 - 2 "Marseille" (France)
23' [0 - 1] Sabri Lamouchi
38' [0 - 2] Mamadou Niang
80' [1 - 2] Vagner Love
Group G:
Donetsk's "Shakhtar" (Ukraine) 1 - 0 Saloniki's "PAOK" (Greece)
67' [1 - 0] Brandao (pen.)
"Rennes" (France) 0 - 2 "Stuttgart" (Germany)
87' [0 - 1] Jon Dahl Tomasson
90' [0 - 2] Daniel Lljuboja (pen.)
Group H:
Istanbul's "Besiktas" (Turkey) 1 - 1 "Bolton" (England)
7' [1 - 0] Ailton
29' [1 - 1] Jared Borgetti
St. Petersburg's "Zenit" (Russia) 2 - 1 Guimaraes's "Vitoria" (Portugal)
39' [1 - 0] Olexandr Spivak (pen.)
54' [2 - 0] Andrei Arshavin
59' [2 - 1] Neca
37' Leonel Medeiros ("Vitoria"), 84' Vladislav Radimov ("Zenit") sent off
