Lazio was knocked out of the UEFA Cup after a 2-2 tie with modest Greek club Egaleo on Thursday as Middlesbrough, Partizan Belgrade and Villarreal advanced from the same group.
In its final Group E match, the Rome club came from behind to lead 2-1 thanks to two strikes by Roberto Muzzi only for Anastasios Agritis to level for Egaleo for a tie and the Greek club's first point. Yiannis Chloros has scored Egaleo's first goal in European soccer in the ninth minute.
PHOTO: AFP
The result means that Lazio finishes with three points from its four games and that's not enough to catch Middlesbrough (six) and Partizan and Villarreal, five from three. Boro was idle while Partizan and Villarreal tied 1-1 in Belgrade.
Benfica, Seville, Lille and Dutch club AZ Alkmaar also reached the second round to join Feyenoord, Schalke, Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, Steaua Bucharest and Newcastle who all qualified for the last 32 on Wednesday.
Slovenia striker Zlatko Zahovic scored twice in Benfica's 3-0 victory at Belgium's Beveren as the Portuguese club reached the second round with its third victory in four games in Group G.
The result means Benfica jumps three points clear of Stuttgart as group leader with the German club two points ahead of Dinamo Zagreb and Heerenveen, who each have four.
Alkmaar beat Scottish league leader Glasgow Rangers 1-0 to reach the next phase thanks to an eighth minute goal by Denny Landzaat in Group F.
Luigi Pieroni scored a hat-trick as Auxerre scored its first Group F victory with a 5-1 beating of Poland's Amica Wronki to stay in contention in the same group.
Two goals by Brazil forward Julio Baptista helped Seville beat AEK Athens 3-2 to go top of the group with seven points ahead of Lille which has six and Zenit St. Petersburg which tied 2-2 at German division two club Alemannia Aachen to hold five. The tie meant Lille also qualified without playing.
Aachen, which qualified for the competition by reaching the German Cup final, has four and can still making it by winning at last place AEK Athens, which has lost all three games so far.
Steffen Iversen scored twice Thursday to lead Valerenga of Norway over Djurgarden of Sweden 3-1 and closer to a second-round berth in the Royal League.
Playing indoors on artificial turf at Valhall arena because no grass field was available in wintry Oslo, the former Tottenham striker scored in the 68th and 88th minutes to clinch the win for Valerenga.
Tobias Hysen had leveled the score at 1-1 for the Stockholm side only three minutes before Iversen's first goal. The win was Valerenga's third straight and 14th overall counting the Norwegian league, which the club lost narrowly on goal difference to Rosenborg earlier this autumn.
Rosenborg, last in its Champions League group, edged Esbjerg 2-1 in Denmark on Frode Johnsen's 89th-minute goal in the other Group 1 game.
Valerenga tops the group with nine points while Rosenborg has four, both from three games. Djurgarden has one and Esbjerg zero points, both from two games.
In Group 2, two-time UEFA Cup champion IFK Goteborg edged Danish league leader Brondby 1-0 to move atop the standings with six points. George Mourad scored for the Swedes in the 39th minute.
FC Copenhagen drew Tromso of Denmark 0-0 in northern Norway and dropped to second with four points. Brondby has three points, while Tromso has one.
Goteborg and Tromso have played three games, the other two teams just twice.
In Group 3, striker Charlie Miller had two goals as Norway's Brann defeated Swedish champion Malmo FF 4-1 at home, while Ulrich Vinzents scored a late goal to salvage a 2-2 draw for OB of Denmark at home against Halmstad of Sweden.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
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