SPORTS

Sporting stay on course for final

By Mike Collett
March 18, 2005 11:54 IST

Sporting Lisbon stayed on course to play this year's UEFA Cup final in their own Jose Alvalade Stadium when they beat Middlesbrough 1-0 to reach the quarter-finals 4-2 on aggregate on Thursday.

The only goal came just before the end of an evenly-balanced second knockout round second leg match when Pedro Barbosa struck the ball just out of reach of Boro goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer.

That guaranteed Sporting's place in Friday's draw at UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland along with AZ Alkmaar and Newcastle United, who sealed their places on Wednesday, and CSKA Moscow who won through earlier on Thursday.

Austria Vienna, Parma and AJ Auxerre also advanced, with the final place to be decided on Sunday when Villarreal meet Steaua Bucharest in their delayed second leg match. The first leg ended 0-0.

CSKA qualified with a 2-0 home victory and 3-1 aggregate success over Partizan Belgrade who finished with nine men after Nenad Djordjevic and Ivan Tomic were sent off in the last seven minutes.

Daniel Carvalho (69th) and Vagner Love (85th pen) scored the goals that secured CSKA's progression.

VIENNA THROUGH

Austria Vienna qualified on the away goals rule after throwing away a 2-0 lead at Real Zaragoza in a match that ended 2-2 on the night for a 3-3

aggregate result.

The Austrians raced into a 2-0 lead after only 12 minutes with goals from Sasa Papac and Tosin Dosunmu, but the balance of the match changed when goalkeeper Joey Didulica was red-carded by Luxembourg referee Alain Hamer after 31 minutes for a late challenge on Brazilian forward Savio.

Zaragoza eventually fought their way back with second-half goals from David Villa (58th) and Luciano Galletti (62nd) but could not get a third past substitute keeper Szabolcs Safar.

Parma, UEFA Cup winners in 1995 and 1999, also advanced against Spanish opposition, seeing off Sevilla with a 19th-minute goal from Giuseppe Cardone, the only one scored over the two legs.

Auxerre went through 1-0 on aggregate against French rivals Lille after the sides finished goalless at Auxerre, who won the first leg 1-0.

It was a miserable night for Lille, who have not won a match since January and finished with 10 men after Milovoje Vitakic was sent off 14 minutes from time for a foul on Auxerre midfielder Lionel Mathis.

Newcastle beat Olympiakos Pireaus 4-0 on Wednesday to advance 7-1 on aggregate and AZ Alkmaar qualified with a 2-1 home win over Shakhtar Donetsk for a 5-2 aggregate success.

Mike Collett
Source: REUTERS
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