Two-time UEFA Cup winner Parma was dumped out of the tournament Wednesday, comfortably beaten by little-known Turkish club Genclerbirligi 3-0.
Also advancing to the fourth round were 2003 finalist Celtic, 2001 winner Liverpool, three-time champion Inter Milan and AS Roma.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Parma goalkeeper Sebastien Frey was sent off in the 34th minute in the third round, second leg match in Ankara, Turkey, for tackling charging forward Souleymane Youla.
Genclerbirligi took advantage to score through Filip Daems and Ali Tandogan. Parma defender Matteo Ferrari added another with an own-goal.
Parma won the UEFA Cup in 1995 and 1999.
Others advancing were Spanish clubs Valencia, FC Barcelona, Villarreal and Mallorca, Dutch club PSV Eindhoven, French clubs Marseille, Bordeaux and Auxerre, Belgium's FC Brugge, Portugal's Benfica and England's Newcastle.
The draw for the fourth round, quarterfinals and semifinals will be made today at UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.
Inter Milan needed the away-goals rule to get past French club Sochaux. The two sides drew 0-0 in Milan a week after a 2-2 draw in France.
While Inter thoroughly outplayed Sochaux, the draw was likely to have little impact on the squad's poor state of affairs.
Striker Christian Vieri received a red card in the 86th minute for pushing defender Maxence Flachez and will miss the next round. Inter can't play its other top striker, Adriano, in Europe because he began the season playing for Parma.
"Considering the current state of the team, this was a decent result," said coach Alberto Zaccheroni, whose club won the UEFA Cup in 1991, 1994 and 1998.
Besides Genclerbirligi, Turkish clubs didn't fare well.
Gaziantepspor lost AS Roma 2-0 in Italy. Brazilian midfielder Emerson and striker Antonio Cassano scored to help Roma to a 2-1 aggregate win.
Besiktas was defeated in Istanbul by Valencia 2-0 off a 12th-minute goal from Miguel Angel Angulo and a second-half header from Juan Sanchez. The two clubs had drawn 2-2 in Valencia last Thursday.
Galatasaray, the 2000 champion, was eliminated by Villarreal. Sonny Anderson, Roger Garcia and Juan Riquelme scored for the Spanish side for a 3-0 second-leg win and a 5-2 aggregate victory. The three British clubs advanced, however.
Celtic lost at provincial Czech club Teplice 1-0, but advanced on aggregate after last week's 2-0 first-leg win in Glasgow.
Liverpool beat Levski Sofia 4-2 in Bulgaria for a 6-2 aggregate win. Goals from Steven Gerrard, Michael Owen, Dietmar Hamman and Sami Hyypia sealed the win.
Newcastle beat Norwegian club Valerenga 3-1 at St. James' Park off two goals from substitute Shola Ameobi and another from captain Alan Shearer.
Valerenga's Erik Hagen had leveled the score in the 25th minute, but Newcastle rallied for a 4-2 aggregate win.
In Eindhoven, Mateja Kezman struck twice and Kevin Hofland added another as PSV downed Perugia 3-1 to advance by the same aggregate score.
Barcelona advanced by beating Brondby of Denmark 2-1, with goals from Luis Garcia and Philip Cocu.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
DOUBLES PAYBACK: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Martens avenged their defeat in the quarters at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to their rematch after they lost to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarter-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open last month, winning three games without reply at the start of the first set