Steaua Bucharest walked away with a slight advantage on Thursday after holding city rival Rapid to a 1-1 draw in the first leg of the UEFA Cup quarterfinals.
Schalke, the only German team left in European competition, left Sofia with an even bigger edge after beating host Levski 3-1.
Later Thursday, FC Basel hosted Middlesbrough and Sevilla played visiting Zenit St. Petersburg. The second legs of the quarterfinals are scheduled for next Thursday.
Banel Nicolita put Steaua in the lead in the fifth minute, stroking the ball into the net off a pass from Daniel Oprita. The goal was the first allowed at home by Rapid in this year's UEFA Cup.
The away goal means Steaua, the 1986 European Cup champion, will advance to the semifinals if it holds Rapid to a 0-0 draw in the second leg.
Viorel Moldovan equalized for Rapid in the 50th, tapping in a loose ball after Steaua goalkeeper Carlos Alberto Fernandes failed to hold on to a shot from Emil Dica.
Rapid and Steaua have a nasty history, with rival fans clashing in recent years.
In a league game this season, fans threw stones and chairs onto the field and stopped the match repeatedly. Last year, the clubs were forced to play behind in an empty stadium after fans shouted racist chants and obscenities.
Gustavo Varela, Lincoln and Gerald Asamoah scored the goals for Schalke -- the only remaining German team with a chance to win a European title this season.
Varela, a second-half substitute, scored the equalizer for Schalke three minutes after coming on, taking a pass from Lincoln in the 48th.
The Brazilian then made it 2-1 in the 69th by curling a shot into the top corner of the net, and Asamoah added the final goal in the 79th by knocking in a rebound after the ball bounced off the post.
Daniel Borimirov gave Levski Sofia the lead in the sixth, taking advantage of a defensive error by Hamit Altintop and shooting past Schalke goalkeeper Frank Rost.
Levski was reduced to 10 men in the 35th when Cedric Bardon got his second yellow card for bringing down Lincoln. Bardon had his first yellow card in the 20th for taking down Asamoah.
The new Wembley stadium won't be ready until 2007 due to further construction delays, the Football Association said Friday.
The latest setback in the building of a new national soccer stadium means that the Community Shield -- English soccer's traditional season opener -- and three England games will be moved to other venues.
The FA announced its decision after meetings with Australian construction firm Multiplex and Wembley management.
"It is clear that the construction of Wembley Stadium is significantly behind schedule," the FA said in a statement. "It is apparent that Wembley will not be available to host our autumn fixtures.''
The FA said it preferred to put off any matches until next year to avoid constant speculation on whether the 90,000-seat, ?757-million (1.1 billion euro) stadium will be ready.
"The FA is taking the prudent measure of booking new venues for all our of fixtures until the year end," it said.
Delays had already forced English officials to move the FA Cup final on May 13 from Wembley to the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. The cup final had been scheduled to be the first match at the new venue.
Now, the FA will have to find a new site for the Aug. 13 Community Shield, which pits the Premier League champion against the FA Cup winner.
An England friendly on Aug. 15 and Euro 2008 qualifiers against Andorra on Sept. 2 and Macedonia on Oct. 7 will also be switched to other venues.
It's likely that England's first game at Wembley won't take place until September 2007.
Rugby league's Challenge Cup final, scheduled for Wembley on Aug. 26, will be played at Twickenham instead.
Wembley had been scheduled to be finished by late 2005, a deadline that was extended to January and then to March.
Part of the roof at the construction site collapsed this month, forcing the evacuation of 3,000 workers, while sewer pipes around the stadium need replacing after they buckled because of ground settling on the building site.
Construction work on the stadium started in September 2002 after a series of delays and wrangling over whether to include a running track. Wembley was part of England's bid to stage the 2006 World Cup, but financial backers withdrew when Germany was awarded the event.
Neo-Nazi plague
Neo-Nazis and right-wing political parties may exploit the World Cup in Germany to publicize their extremist views, the country's interior ministry said on Thursday.
Wolfgang Schaueble, whose office is responsible for security at soccer's showcase event, confirmed media reports that Neo-Nazis and the National Democratic Party (NPD) may stage demonstrations during this year's World Cup.
"Inside the scene, ways of exploiting the World Cup are being considered," Schaueble said.
The interior minister, speaking at a security conference attended by 200 experts from 40 countries, said efforts to prevent violence were on track 10 weeks before the June 9 World Cup opening match.
"As good team players, we are right on schedule," Schaueble said, adding that overzealous precautions shouldn't spoil the tournament. "We all want safe matches, but we don't want this to be the `Security World Cup.'"
Berlin daily Tagesspiegel said right-wing groups have scheduled five marches, with the first on June 10. Music CDs from bands with their political leanings will be distributed to fans.
"We will fight extremist goals before, during and after the soccer World Cup," Schaueble said. "That's why the security agencies are there."
Germany will set up border controls with neighboring countries during the tournament, despite the Schengen Agreement allowing free movement of citizens within the EU, with the controls used on a case-by-case basis.
referee strike looms
Spain's referees said on Thursday they are maintaining their threat to strike this weekend even though the Professional Football League has apparently agreed to their demands.
"The strike continues," referees' spokesman Eduardo Iturralde Gonzalez said. "We are the only ones who can call it off."
League president Jose Luis Astiazaran said earlier Thursday that the match officials would receive outstanding payments for February and March via the Spanish soccer federation and not directly from the league.
Astiazaran's announcement was expected to lead referees to abandon action which would force the postponement of Saturday's eagerly awaited game between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid.
"I have given the order for 200 bank transfers to the federation to be made in the names of first and second-division referees and for the total sum they are owed," Astiazaran told news agency Efe.
The federation, cited by Efe, said it "assumed the strike to be called off."
"The bottom line is there will be no strike and soccer is the winner again, despite the trouble between everyone," federation spokesman Jorge Carretero said. "The League accepts its debt to the referees and will pay. And the referees are satisfied because the debt has been recognized."
However, Iturralde Gonzalez said it was impossible for referees to receive the money by Friday, the deadline they had given for strike action to be avoided.
He said it would be decided whether they would end their strike on Friday when he received the response from his colleagues to the league's announcement.
The dispute began when the federation, which normally pays the referees, returned a payment from the league on the grounds that it didn't meet the entire sum owed.
Those from the top flight were each owed around 12,000 euros (US$14,440).
While the referees' committee was to hold an emergency meeting only hours before kick off on Saturday, the state-run Higher Sports Council and sports minister Jaime Lissavetzky had pressed for the strike to be called off before then.
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