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Bayern, Fiorentina's UEFA Cup chances suffer heavy blows

Bayern Munich and Fiorentina’s UEFA Cup hopes suffered potentially fatal blows on Thursday when both were held to disappointing home draws in quarter-final, first leg clashes.

Bayern, widely tipped as champions, were held 1-1 by Spanish outsiders Getafe at their Allianz Arena stronghold, while Fiorentina also squandered a lead before PSV Eindhoven struck an equalizer in Florence.

Russia’s Zenit St. Petersburg virtually made sure of their place in the semi-finals coming away from Germany’s Bayer Leverkusen with a thumping 4-1 win.

In the night’s other tie, Scottish Premier League champions-elect Rangers played out a 0-0 stalemate against Portugal’s Sporting Lisbon at Ibrox.

In Munich, Getafe’s substitute defender Cosmin Contra hit a 90th minute equalizer as the Spanish side forced a well-earned draw to seize the initiative ahead of next Thursday’s second leg.

Bayern’s Italian international striker Luca Toni had put his side in the driving seat with a first-half goal, but the German giants were punished for their lack of finishing.

“The 1-1 draw is a bad result for us, if you don’t take your chances then you get punished,” Bayern coach Ottmar Hitzfeld said. “We could — and should — have had one or two extra goals and we had lots of chances to counter-attack.”

In Florence, Romanian international striker Adrian Mutu gave Fiorentina a 56th minute lead for his fourth goal in the tournament this season before Danny Koevermans leveled seven minutes later.

Fiorentina coach Cesare Prandelli praised his opponents.

“PSV are a great team who came into this competition via the Champions League and played very well tonight,” Prandelli said.

Bayer Leverkusen boss Rudi Voeller said Zenit St. Petersburg produced a performance more suited to the Champions League after the Russians’ crushing 4-1 win.

Leverkusen were dazzled at home in the first-leg clash as the Russian champions blew the Bundesliga side away with three goals in 12 second-half minutes.

“With a performance like that, St. Petersburg are better suited to the Champions League,” Voeller said. “It happened exactly as we had warned the players. The Russians hit us on the counter-attack and we played into their hands.”

Goals from forwards Andrei Arshavin, Pavel Pogrebnyak, Igor Denisov plus defender Aleksandr Anyukov mean Leverkusen will effectively be playing for pride in St. Petersburg next week.
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