Print

Mail

wiki links

Basel, Schalke advance

Schalke's Rafinha, front, fights for the ball against Palermo's Mario Santana during a UEFA Cup match between FC Schalke 04 and Palermo in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, on Thursday. Schalke 04 defeated Palermo 3-0. PHOTO: AP

The UEFA Cup, already a distant second in stature to the Champions League, lost two of its top-name clubs on Thursday.

Former European champion Olympique Marseille was knocked out of the round of 16 by Zenit St. Petersburg, and Bulgaria's Levski Sofia eliminated Italy's Udinese.

The quarterfinal draw is today in Eindhoven, Netherlands, with the games set for March 30 and April 6. The semifinals are April 20-27, and the final is May 10 in Eindhoven.

At St. Petersburg, Russia, Zenit and Marseille drew 1-1 with the Russian club reaching its first UEFA Cup quarterfinals 2-1 on aggregate.

Alexander Kerzhakov gave Zenit the 1-0 lead in the 69th minute, and Frederic Dehu equalized five minutes later.

At Seville, Spain, Banel Nicolita scored twice and Victoras Iacob added another goal as Steaua beat Betis 3-0 to qualify on the same aggregate score after the first leg ended 0-0.

Midfielder Nicolita opened the scoring in the 54th minute by side-footing past goalkeeper Pedro Contreras from inside the penalty area.

Betis right winger Joaquin Sanchez was sent off six minutes later for lashing out with his elbow.

Iacob directed a glancing header home on an in-swinging cross from Dica in the 78th to make it 2-0.

Four minutes later, Nicolita cut in from the left before sending a low shot beyond Contreras' reach.

At Sofia, Bulgaria, Daniel Borimirov and Igor Tomasic scored in the second half and Levski Sofia rallied to beat Italy's Udinese 2-1. They drew 0-0 in the first leg.

Fernando Tissone gave Udinese a 1-0 lead in the 22nd.

At Strasbourg, France, Basel reached the quarterfinals after a 2-2 draw with Strasbourg. The Swiss club went through 4-2 on aggregate.

Brazilian striker Eduardo scored twice for Basel. Rudy Carlier and Cedric Kante scored for the French club.

At Gelsenkirchen, Schalke rallied from a 1-0 loss in the first leg to beat Palermo 3-0 and oust another Italian club.

Levan Kobiaschvili put the Germans ahead on a 44th-minute penalty, with striker Soeren Larsen scoring in the 72nd and midfielder Mimoun Azaouagh netting in the 80th.

Palermo midfielder Eugenio Corini was sent off just before halftime for deliberately handling the ball.

Schalke, which won the UEFA Cup in 1997, is the only Bundesliga team to reach quarterfinals of European competition this season.

After four seasons of failure to join the title contenders, Fulham is sliding toward relegation trouble.

Beaten 5-1 at Liverpool on Wednesday, Chris Coleman's 16th-place side hosts runaway leader Chelsea tomorrow and is nervously looking at the teams below.

Although Fulham has an eight-point advantage over 18th-place Birmingham, Steve Bruce's team has two games in hand. West Bromwich Albion, just above the relegation zone, is five points behind Fulham with one game in hand.

Fulham is owned by millionaire Harrod's boss Mohamed al Fayed, who had hoped his club would join Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool as title contenders. Instead, the London team has to beat the defending champion at Craven Cottage tomorrow to ease its relegation fears.

Coleman's team goes into the west London derby against Jose Mourinho's Blues, who are 15 points ahead in the title race and counting the games before they collect the title for the second season in a row.

Although second-place Manchester United has a game in hand, there seems little chance of Alex Ferguson's team, which goes to West Brom on Saturday, making up that gap with only 10 games to go.

Now that it has rediscovered its scoring touch, third-place Liverpool goes to Newcastle hoping to improve its goals record on the road. Benitez' team has scored 14 goals from 14 games and has been shut out five times.

The sight of strikers Robbie Fowler, Fernando Morientes and Peter Crouch all scoring their first league goals of 2006 delighted Benitez, who is the focus of speculation about his future at Anfield.

``They were all waiting to score and it was important for their confidence that they did,'' the former Valencia coach said. ``Everybody will want to talk about Robbie's first goal since he returned here, but I was equally pleased with the goals from the other strikers too.''

Tottenham hopes to hold onto fourth place, which could mean a place in next season's Champions League, by winning at second-from-last Birmingham. Arsenal hopes to make up ground on its north London neighbor by beating Charlton at home.

FIFA has decided to keep a May 15 deadline for countries to name their 23-man squads for the World Cup in Germany.

"This course of action is intended to afford the players concerned adequate recovery time, although injured players may be replaced after this date following a specific procedure," FIFA said on Thursday.

Many coaches had lobbied for the deadline to be extended ahead of the June 9-July 9 tournament.

FIFA versus racism

FIFA passed anti-racism legislation on Thursday that could exclude teams for up to two years for violations.

Under the rules passed by the world governing body's executive committee, teams would see three points deducted for a first offense, six for a second and relegation for further violations.

Teams could also be disqualified from competitions, and member associations could be excluded for up to two years.

"The new rules take effect essentially as soon as we can notify the associations by way of a letter," FIFA spokesman Andreas Herren said. "It's not going to take a long time.

"It applies to all competitions throughout the world at any level. All matches of all types are covered."
This story has been viewed 1474 times.