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Yesterday (Wednesday) there were played seven UEFA Cup round of 16 matches, in which no special surprises were recorded. Yesterday, as planned, the match between "Austria" and "Athletic Bilbao" did not take place - the referee from Israel canceled it because of snow.
The match that was supposed to take place in the Austrian capital Vienna was canceled just about half an hour before the start of the match, despite the efforts of many local fans. It is said that even 200 club fans helped to remove the snow from the heavily snow-covered pitch, but referee Alon Yefet decided that the ground near one of the goals was too frozen, so he decided to move the match to today (Thursday). According to the latest data, the match will take place at 19:30 Lithuanian time.
In yesterday's matches, a somewhat unexpected result was recorded in Athens, where the "Panathinaikos" players led by a new coach defeated this season's "La Liga" sensation - "Sevilla" - 1-0. It is worth mentioning that the hosts won four victories yesterday, and three matches ended in draws.
Fierce matches took place in Amsterdam, where "Ajax" defeated "Auxerre" by a minimal result. Maxwell scored the only goal of the match by playing fantastically with his teammate Rafael van der Vaart. The hope of "Auxerre" to advance to the next stage was slightly increased at the end of the match by the leg injury suffered by "Ajax" leader and top assist provider van der Vaart. However, it is worth mentioning that so far no French club has managed to win the UEFA Cup.
Lisbon's "Sporting" provided a huge celebration for their fans by defeating Rotterdam's "Feyenoord" 2-1. The victory of "Sporting" was special because they managed to recover after conceding the first goal and, although they played with ten men from the 65th minute and were left without a coach from the 85th minute, who was ejected for arguing with an assistant referee, they managed to snatch the victory.
The defending champion "Valencia" won convincingly, defeating Bucharest's "Steaua" 2-0 at their home ground. The second goal of the match for the Spaniards was scored by "Valencia" leader Pablo Aimar, who had just recovered from injuries.
The other three matches ended in draws: the Brazilians strengthened "Shakhtar" to a draw with "Schalke", "Partizan" failed to beat "Dnipro" at home, and there were no goals scored in the match between "Parma" and "Stuttgart".
Results of Wednesday (16/02/2005):
"Partizan" 2 - 2 "Dnipro" 12' [1 - 0] Obiora Odita 28' [1 - 1] Sergey Nazarenko 45' [2 - 1] Obiora Odita 57' [2 - 2] Andrey Rusol
"Shakhtar" 1 - 1 "Schalke" 7' [0 - 1] Ailton 86' [1 - 1] Brandao
"Ajax" 1 - 0 "Auxerre" 37' [1 - 0] Maxwell
"Panathinaikos" 1 - 0 "Sevilla" 66' [1 - 0] Loukas Vintra
"Parma" 0 - 0 "Stuttgart"
"Sporting" 2 - 1 "Feyenoord" 7' [0 - 1] Baart Goor 23' [1 - 1] Custodio 37' [2 - 1] Liedson 65' Custodio was sent off the field ("Sporting")
"Valencia" 2 - 0 "Steaua" 38' [1 - 0] Marco Di Vaio 54' [2 - 0] Pablo Aimar
