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On Thursday, the second leg matches of the UEFA Cup first round took place. There were almost no surprises, as all the big clubs did their job professionally and advanced to the tournament group stage.
The only surprise was in Italy, where "Udinese" defeated Greek "Panionios" eleven, but withdrew from the tournament due to a failure of two goals difference in the first match. The match between "Wisla" and Tbilisi "Dinamo" was fiercely contested, but in the end the team from Georgia emerged victorious.
The Scottish giants Glasgow "Rangers" had to struggle to win only after an 11-meter penalty shootout. Meanwhile, the Grozny "Terek", who had been surprising everyone, had to admit the superiority of the "Basel" team.
The team coached by B. Zelkevicius, Liepajas "Metalurgs", withdrew from the competition after losing at home to the German team "Schalke". In the Latvian squad, Marius Skinderis and Edvinas Lukosevicius played in all matches, while Darius Gvildys was substituted in the 68th minute.
Two Lithuanians - Darius Miceika and Egidijus Majus - made it to the next stage with the St. Petersburg club "Zenit". By the way, both Lithuanians, as usual, were not registered for this match, and the Russian champions defeated "Crvena Zvezda" for the second time.
The group stage will also include the "Hearts" club, whose 20 percent of shares will soon be acquired by Lithuanian businessman Vladimiras Romanovas. The Scots played a draw with the Portuguese "Braga" and that was enough, as they had won the first match.
All results (highlighted teams progressing to the next stage).
"CSKA Sofia" 2 - 2 "Steaua" (first leg 1 - 2) "Metalurgs L." 0 - 4 "Schalke" (1 - 5) "Stuttgart" 4 - 0 "Ujpest" (3 - 1) "Genclerbirligi" 1 - 1 "Egaleo" (0 - 1) "Amica" 1 - 0 "Ventspils" (1 - 1) "Braga" 2 - 2 "Hearts" (1 - 3) "Dnipro" 2 - 0 "Maccabi Haifa" (0 - 1) "Dinamo Tbilisi"* 2 - 1 "Wisla" (3 - 4) "Stabaek" 0 - 5 "Sochaux" (0 - 4) "Sigma" 2 - 3 "Zaragoza" (0 - 1) "Crvena Zvezda" 1 - 2 "Zenit" (0 - 4) "Lille" 2 - 0 "Shelbourne" (2 - 2) "Litex" 1 - 0 "GAK" (0 - 5) "Benfica" 2 - 0 "Banska" (3 - 0) "Dinamo Bucuresti" 0 - 0 "Partizan" (1 - 3) "Nacional" 1 - 2 "Sevilla" (0 - 2) "Aachen" 0 - 0 "Hafnarfjördur" (5 - 1) "Rangers"** 1 - 0 "Maritimo" (0 - 1) "Alkmaar" 2 - 1 "PAOK" (3 - 2) "Elfsborg" 0 - 0 "Dinamo Zagreb" (0 - 2) "Maribor" 0 - 0 "Parma" (2 - 3) "Djurgården" 3 - 0 "Utrecht" (0 - 4) "Basel" 2 - 0 "Terek" (1 - 1) "Feyenoord" 4 - 1 "Odd" (1 - 0) "Besiktas" 1 - 0 "Bodo" (1 - 1) "Chateauroux" 1 - 2 "Brugge" (0 - 4) "Bochum" 1 - 1 "Standard"* (0 - 0) "Beveren" 1 - 0 "Levski" (1 - 1) "Banik" 1 - 1 "Middlesbrough" (0 - 3) "Rapid" 0 - 0 "Sporting" (0 - 2) "H. Bnei Sakhnin" 1 - 5 "Newcastle" (0 - 2) "Legia" 1 - 3 "Austria" (0 - 1) "Auxerre" 2 - 0 "Aalborg" (1 - 1) "Ferencvaros" 3 - 1 "Millwall" (1 - 1) "Lazio" 3 - 0 "Metalurg" (3 - 0) "Udinese" 1 - 0 "Panionios" (1 - 3) "Bilbao" 2 - 0 "Trabzonspor" (2 - 3) "AEK" 1 - 0 "Gorica" (1 - 1) "Villarreal" 2 - 0 "Hammarby" (2 - 1) "Heerenveen" 5 - 0 "M. Petach-Tikva" (Heerenveen team advanced to the next stage after these single match at home, as the first match in Israel did not take place due to protests).
* - thanks to better away goals ratio ** - after a penalty shootout
