© EuroFootball.com
End of the UEFA Cup tournament group stage on Wednesday again ended with a dramatic climax, as it was unclear until the last minutes of the matches who would advance to the round of sixteen. The defending champions Moscow "CSKA" will certainly not be in it, as they were forced to withdraw after the unfavorable results of the final round - "Heerenveen," "Bolton," "Roma" and "Basel" advanced instead.
"CSKA," having already played their matches in Group F, still had hopes of staying in the tournament, but the fate of the Russian team depended on the results of other teams' matches. For most of the matches, everything was going in favor of the Moscow team - "Marseille" convincingly won against Bucharest "Dinamo" in France, while "Heerenveen" in the Netherlands played a draw with Sofia's "Levski." However, "Heerenveen" fought until the end, and in the last minute of the match, Andre Hanssen's accurate shot secured a victory for his team, guaranteed a place in the round of sixteen, and crowned last season's champion "CSKA" club.
Similarly dramatic were the final matches in Group E, where three teams vying for a spot in the next stage could determine their own fate. In Italy, the capital's "Roma" led against "Basel" after Rodrigo Taddei's goal at the beginning of the match, but halfway through the first half, the match almost turned upside down when the visitors' player Ivano Ergic hit the crossbar, and shortly after, Matias Delgado was prevented by a blockage.
"Roma" took advantage of their opponents' failures and doubled the result before halftime through Francesco Totti, securing a victory for his team and second place in the group with Shabani Nonda. Meanwhile, in another match played for over an hour, "Crvena Zvezda" on the road led by two goals against "Strasbourg" - it seemed that "Basel" was safe with Mladen Petric's consolation goal, and the Swiss team's appearance in the tournament would end.
However, immediately after that, "Strasbourg" recovered in France, which softened the deficit after Kevin Gameiro's goal, and in the fourth minute of added time, the same player headed in to equalize the score and knock out the Serbian team, who were very close to the round of sixteen, at the same time giving the "Basel" team a Christmas "gift" - a ticket to the next stage of the cup.
There was no less intrigue in Group G, where the third team to advance to the round of sixteen was "Bolton," who played a 1-1 draw at home with "Sevilla." This result was favorable for both teams - the English club had enough with just one point to overtake Istanbul's "Besiktas," whose victory away to Guimaraes' "Vitoria" was already meaningless, and the Spanish team equalized points with St. Petersburg's "Zenit" and won the group on goal difference.
The owners of the remaining seven tickets to the UEFA Cup round of sixteen will be determined after the last matches of Groups A, B, C, and D on Thursday, and the draw for further matches will take place on Friday.
Group E
"Roma" 3 - 1 "Basel"
12` [1 - 0] Rodrigo Taddei
45` [2 - 0] Francesco Totti
49` [3 - 0] Shabani Nonda
78` [3 - 1] Mladen Petric
"Strasbourg" 2 - 2 Belgrade "Crvena Zvezda"
34` [0 - 1] Dusan Basta
63` [0 - 2] Ardijan Djokaj
79` [1 - 2] Kevin Gameiro
90` [2 - 2] Kevin Gameiro
Group F
"Marseille" 2 - 1 Bucharest "Dinamo"
39` [1 - 0] Bostjan Cesar
45` [2 - 0] Jose Delfim
52` [2 - 1] Claudiu Iulian Niculescu
"Heerenveen" 2 - 1 Sofia "Levski"
52` [0 - 1] Miroslav Ivanov
55` [1 - 1] Georgios Samaras
90` [2 - 1] Andre Hanssen
Group G
"Stuttgart" 2 - 1 Bucharest "Rapid"
20` [1 - 0] Mario Gomez
37` [2 - 0] Mario Gomez
80` [2 - 1] Lucian Burdujan
"PAOK" 5 - 1 "Rennes"
4` [1 - 0] Alain Rochat (own goal)
38` [2 - 0] Lazaros Christodoupoulos
70` [2 - 1] Jimmy Briand
79` [3 - 1] Yiasoumis Yiasoumi
83` [4 - 1] Dimitrios Salpigidis (pen.)
89` [5 - 1] Yiasoumis Yiasoumi
Group H
"Bolton" 1 - 1 "Sevilla"
65` [1 - 0] Bruno N’Gotty
75` [1 - 1] Adriano Correira
Guimaraes "Vitoria" 1 - 3 Istanbul "Besiktas"
9` [0 - 1] Ibrahim Toraman
12` [1 - 1] Marek Saganowski
18` [1 - 2] Souleymane Youla
60` [1 - 3] Ibrahim Toraman
