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Newcastle manhandles Olympiakos

Newcastle's Brien Andy, left, and Carr Stephen, right, fight for the ball with Olympiakos Piraeus' Okkas Giannis during their UEFA Cup match in Athens City, Thursday. PHOTO: AFP

Olympiakos had two men sent off in the first half and Newcastle romped to a 3-1 victory on Thursday to take a giant stride toward the quarterfinals of the UEFA Cup.

Spanish referee Arturo Ibanez issued a red card to Grigorios Georgatos for a professional foul and two yellows followed by a red to Athanasios Kostoulas as the Greek club was reduced to nine men by the 44th minute.

With Newcastle leading 2-1 on an Alan Shearer's 12th-minute penalty and a 22m free kick by Laurent Robert in the 34th, furious Olympiakos fans hurled abuse and bottles at Ibanez and the Newcastle bench as the players left the field at halftime.

Although Predrag Djordjevic's 15th-minute penalty kept Olympiakos close, Newcastle secured the victory when Patrick Kluivert added a third in the 69th minute. More bottles showered the Newcastle players as they left the field following the game.

Besides Newcastle, Dutch club AZ Alkmaar also won away, 3-1 at Shakhtar Donetsk; Lille won at fellow French club Auxerre 1-0; and Sporting Lisbon won 3-2 at Middlesbrough.

In other round-of-16, first-leg matches Thursday, it was Partizan Belgrade 1, CSKA Moscow 1; Austria Vienna 1, Zaragoza 1, and Sevilla 0, Parma 0. Steau Bucharest's match against Villarreal was delayed until next week because of snow.

While Newcastle's victory delighted many fans in northeast England, others watched in dismay.

In its rookie season in European competition, Middlesbrough was outplayed for long spells by Sporting Lisbon, which led 3-0 at the Riverside before conceding a pair of goals in the last 11 minutes.

Veteran Pedro Barbosa, Brazilian forward Liedson and Rodolph Douala scored three times in 16 minutes. Despite late strikes by Joseph Desire Job and Chris Riggott, Middlesbrough is facing elimination from its European experience in its 128-year history in next week's second leg in Lisbon.

Spanish clubs Sevilla, Real Zaragoza and Villarreal were aiming to make up for the disappointment of Real Madrid and Barcelona failing to reach the last eight of the Champions League.

But Sevilla was held goalless by Parma, Villarreal will have to wait another week for its match against Steau and Zaragoza needed a 74th-minute tally from Savio Bortolini to get its draw with Austria Vienna.

In Donetsk, Ukraine, Joris Mathijsen gave AZ Alkmaar a 2-1 lead in the 50th minute and Kenneth Perez added the insurance on a penalty in injury time to send the Dutch club home with a two-goal advantage.

A second referee was arrested in Germany's match-fixing scandal on suspicion of rigging three games, the Berlin prosecutor's office said Thursday.

A Berlin magistrate ruled that Marks should remain in investigative custody to prevent him from escaping.

Thierry Henry hurt

Arsenal's season went from bad to worse on Thursday with news that Thierry Henry is out for as long as three weeks with a calf muscle strain.

Manager Arsene Wenger told the Arsenal Web site that the star striker will miss Saturday's FA Cup quarterfinal against Bolton.

He will miss at least two more games.
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