Parma reaches UEFA Cup quarterfinals

Parma's Fabio Vignaroli, right, and Seville's Daniel Alves in action during their UEFA Cup match at Parma's Tardini stadium in northern Italy, Thursday. PHOTO: AP

Giuseppe Cardone maintained Italy's interest in the UEFA Cup with Parma's winner against Seville on Thursday but wound up flat on his back after being hit in the face by an opponent.

Cardone the only goal in all 180 minutes between the two sides but, with a minute to go, was struck by Seville defender Aitor Ocio after the two tangled in the Parma area. There was concern as he lay on the turf for several minutes and appeared to have problems breathing but he got to his feet.

The result means Parma, struggling in Serie A, goes into Friday's quarterfinal draw as Italy's lone representative. By contrast, AC Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus have all made it to the last eight of the Champions League.

There was drama, too, as Austria Vienna survived the first-half ejection of goalkeeper Joseph Didulica and went through on the away goals rule after a 2-2 draw with Real Zaragoza.

The Austrians went to Zaragoza with the teams at 1-1, and raced into a 2-0 lead through Sasa Papac and Tosin Dosunmu in the first 10 minutes.

Didulica sent off in the 30th minute for bringing down Zaragoza's Brazilian forward Savio Bortolini as he raced for goal, and Zaragoza hit back against the 10-men visitor with goals by David Villa and Luciano Galletti. But Austria held on to gain a place in the last eight.

A last-minute winner by Pedro Barbosa gave Sporting Lisbon a 1-0 victory over Middlesbrough, and a 4-2 aggregate triumph to keep alive Portuguese hopes of another European title. FC Porto won last season's Champions League a year after capturing the UEFA Cup, and Sporting is Portugal's last survivor in either competition.

Auxerre held 0-0 at home by Lille in an all-French matchup, but advanced 1-0 having won the away leg. Lille's Milivoje Vitakic was sent off for violent conduct 16 minutes from the end.

Brazilian Daniel Carvalho and Vagner Love fired CSKA Moscow into the last eight in a 2-0 victory over Partizan Belgrade, which had two players sent off in the last seven minutes.

Partizan's Nenad Djordjevic was dismissed for a professional foul in the 83rd minute, and he was followed two minutes later by Ivan Tomic for foul and abusive language as the Serbian side went out 3-1 on aggregate.

In Wednesday's games, Newcastle romped to a 4-0 victory over Greek club Olympiakos to advance 7-1, and Dutch team AZ Alkmaar beat Ukraine's Shakhtar Donetsk 2-1 (5-2). In a first-leg game which had been postponed by heavy snow, Steaua Bucharest and Villarreal drew 0-0. They meet again on Sunday.

Swedish Markus Rosenberg scored a dazzling goal in the 14th minute to give Malmo FF a 1-0 win over FC Copenhagen in a Group 1 match.

Some fans from both sides clashed before the game, according to Swedish news agency TT. One supporter was injured, but not seriously. Police detained 45 fans, who were later released.

The win moved the Swedish champion within a point of group leader Rosenborg of Norway, which was idle. Rosenborg has four points, Malmo three, and last-placed Copenhagen one.

Rosenberg's into the top of the net was the young striker's fifth goal in seven Royal League games for the former two-time UEFA Cup champions.

Malmo had two other excellent scoring chances.

Niklas Skoog broke away all alone but fired wide late in the first half, and Peter Abelsson's header hit the crossbar in the second half.

Valerenga forced to move its Group 2 game indoors against fellow Norwegian first-division side Brann of Bergen because of bad weather.

Morten Berre scored a late goal to salvage the draw for Valerenga, still unbeaten in RL play. Stefan Ishizaki also scored for Valerenga in the second half, after Martin Knudsen and Charlie Miller put Brann two up in the first half.

Valerenga Brann each have one point, two behind leader IFK Goteborg of Sweden, which was idle.

German authorities, stung by a game-rigging scandal involving a ring of high-stake gamblers, is thinking of setting up its own betting agency.

Theo Zwanziger, one of two co-presidents of the German soccer federation (DFB), said the idea was to prevent game-rigging and help amateur soccer with the earnings.

The market should not be left to companies that make big turnovers "with our shows."

"They are using our games and we don't get anything out of it," Zwanziger said.

Zwanziger the DFB was planning such a move after the 2006 World Cup, in cooperation with the German league, which runs the Bundesliga championship.

Oddset, the state-run betting agency, is a national sponsor of the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

Zwanziger the turnover of bookmakers on German matches was up to 3 million euros (US$3.9 million) a year, "and we want to get a cut, since we provide the foundation."

Germany been rocked by a match-fixing scandal, after referee Robert Hoyzer admitted accepting bribes to rig matches for a ring of Croatian gamblers who made huge winnings by placing bets with Oddset on manipulated matches.

Berlin are investigating 25 people suspected of involvement in the scheme, including 14 players and four referees.

One remains in custody, while Hoyzer has been released. The three Croatian brothers suspected of masterminding the scheme also have been in prison since January.