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On Thursday, the first semi-final matches of the UEFA Cup tournament took place. The first step towards the final, which will take place in their own stadium, was taken by Lisbon's "Sporting", who defeated Alkmaar's "AZ" at home, while D.Šembero's "CSKA" ended the match against "Parma" without goals.
0 - 0
Fighting to stay in the "Serie A" championship, the Italian team decided to give a rest to their team leaders, and once again the young "Parma" footballers took to the field, as in the previous tournament matches.
The Russian team started the match more actively, but the hosts defended successfully and goalkeeper L.Bucci did not have much work to do. At the end of the first half, the opportunity to score was for D.Šemberas, who played the entire match, but after receiving a pass from M.Krasic, he shot over the goal.
After the break, "CSKA" again tried to attack more, but they almost conceded a goal - first F.Ruopolo missed, and then T.Sorrentino deflected the shot by I.Akinfeev.
Later, D.Carvalho's penalty strike went wide, F.Vignaroli's attempt was saved by the goalkeeper, and the last opportunity of the match for A.Pisanu was a weak shot. No goals were scored, so the winner of this pair will be decided in the second match in Moscow.
2 - 1
36' [0 - 1] Danny Landzaat
37' [1 - 1] Roudolphe Douala
80' [2 - 1] Mauricio Pinilla
The hosts immediately took the initiative and dominated the match, but did not create any more dangerous opportunities, and "AZ" broke forward with their first shot - D.Landzaat redirected a pass from the side towards the goal.
However, the visitors' lead did not last long, as just a minute later the ball bounced in the penalty area to R.Douala, who shot accurately and equalized the score, reviving the hopes of the Portuguese.
The Dutch team began to attack at the start of the second half, but O.Linderberg's shot went wide, while B.Van Galen initially shot straight at the goalkeeper, and later his pass did not reach A.Ramzi.
"Sporting" gradually regained initiative, but only managed to score the winning goal thanks to a great long-distance shot: with 10 minutes left, M.Pinilla, who came onto the field after a substitution, scored with a powerful shot from 25 meters into the corner of the goal, putting his team ahead.
At the end of the match, he could have increased the lead, but he failed to hit the ball accurately in front of the goalkeeper.
In the second leg, the Lisbon club will have a one-goal advantage, but "AZ" can be comforted by their away goal and will hope to defeat their opponents in their home arena, where they have not lost a single UEFA Cup match this season.
