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On Thursday, the last five UEFA Cup tournament round of 16 first leg matches took place. Strong foundations for a shared victory were laid by "Sevilla" and "Newcastle" winning away, while "Braga" and "Lens" secured victories at home. One match ended in a draw. Recall that in the quarter-finals, due to inappropriate fan behavior, "Feyenoord" was disqualified and "Tottenham" entered without competition.
In the first matches in Moscow, "Spartak" hosted Vigo's "Celta". The visitors took the lead first after Antonio Nunez's goal. However, in the 64th minute, the score was leveled by a precise penalty kick from Maksim Kalinichenko. This was the Ukrainian's third consecutive goal for the "Spartak" team in European tournaments. Later, A. Nunez could have snatched the victory, but in a comfortable situation, he missed the goal.
Last season's UEFA Cup winners, "Sevilla," clashed in Bucharest with "Steaua," who had been eliminated from the Champions League. The Romanians did not give in to the leaders of La Liga and responded with dangerous attacks, but the Spaniards were often saved by goalkeeper Andreas Palop. Meanwhile, "Sevilla" players, using their mastery, scored two goals and gained excellent positions for the return match. At the end of the first half, Dane Christian Poulsen sent a bouncing ball into the net, and Malian Frederic Kanoute converted an 11m penalty in the second half.
The Portuguese team "Braga" narrowly defeated the newly acquired "Parma" team. Ze Carlos scored the winning goal with a precise shot from the left wing into the far corner of the goal.
"Newcastle" easily defeated the modest Belgian team "Zulte Waregem" 3-1 away, while at home, "Lens" exceeded "Panathinaikos" with the same result.
The second leg matches of the round of 16 will take place in a week.
