Serie A sides Parma and Lazio enjoyed narrow wins in the UEFA Cup second round last night but both muts negotiate away fixtures if they are to progress tothe next round.
Parma overcame a plucky Wisla Krakow 2-1 thanks to Romanian forward Adrian Mutu’s winner 16 minutes from time. Maciej Zurawski had earlier levelled Massimo Donati’s opener for Parma.
Lazio beat former European champions Crvena Zvezda, 1-0, through a Stefano Fiore goal, but the visitors were a constant threat and unlucky not to emerge with a draw. A point not lost on Zvezda coach Zoran Filipovic, who sounded optimistic about his team’s prospects in the second leg when he stated: “We will have a very good chance playing in front of a full house.”
There was trouble before and during the clash between Panathinaikos and Fenerbahce. The Turkish annd Greek foreign ministers cut short a pre-match tour of Fenerbache’s stadium when they were pelted with missiles by suppporters. The missiles came from the Greek supporters, who themselves were later bombarded by objects thrown by their Turkishcounterparts. The match itself was fairly uneventful, ending in a 1-1 draw.
Scottish champions Celtic were grateful to a late Henrik Larsson goal to overcome England’s Blackburn Rovers in the all-British affair. Blackburn dominated possession but lacked a cutting edge before the prolific Swede struck from close range on 85 minutes. On the evidence of this display, the English side mustt fancy their changes of overcoming the deficit.
England’s other representatives, Fulham, Ipswich Town and Leeds United, all won. Fulham produced the most impressive performance of the trio, winning 3-0 away at Dinamo Zagreb, while Ipswich and Leeds both secured 1-0 home wins against Israel’s Hapoel Tel-Aviv and Czech side Slovan Liberec respectively.
Celta de Vigo overcame Norway’s Viking 3-0 at home and Malaga came from behind to beat Poland’s Amica Wronki 2-1. However, 2000-01 finalists Alaves needed a last-minute Abelardo Fernandez goal to secure a 1-1 draw with Turkey’s Besiktas.
All three German teams were away and enjoyed mixed fortunes. Hertha Berlin won 1-0 at APOEL Nicosia, but Stuttgart were held 0-0 by Hungary’s Ferencvarosi and Werder Bremen lost 2-1 at Dutch side Vitesse.
Paris Saint-Germain produced an impressive performance to beat triumphed National Bucuresti 2-0; all this despite being reduced to ten men. Elsewhere, while there were wins for Porto, 1-0 at Austria Wien, and PAOK Thessaloniki, who beat Grasshoppers 2-1 at home. Partizan, Anderlecht, Boavista and Sturm Graz also picked up home victories over Slavia Prague, Midtjylland, Anorthosis, Levski Sofia respectively.
