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AC Milan reach Cup group stage

UEFA CUP

AC Milan eased past FC Zurich into the UEFA Cup group stage on Thursday along with two-time champion Tottenham, who squeezed past Wisla Krakow.

Borussia Dortmund, the 1997 Champions League winners, were eliminated by Udinese 4-3 on penalty kicks, but Hamburg, Stuttgart, Schalke and Wolfsburg will form a strong German representation.

Four Spanish teams — Sevilla, league, Valencia, Real Santander and Deportivo La Coruna — also marched into the next phase.

England and Italy will each have three teams among the 40 in Tuesday’s draw.

Andriy Shevchenko scored his first goal since returning to Milan to secure the seven-time European Cup champion’s passage 4-1 on aggregate. Serie A rival Sampdoria also advanced.

Tottenham eased the pressure on under-fire manager Juande Ramos by completing a 3-1 aggregate win with a 1-1 draw at Wisla and will join Manchester City in the next phase after the newly enriched Premier League club repeated their 2-1 first-leg victory over Omonia Nicosia.

Aston Villa were held 1-1 by Litex Lovech, but were carried through 4-2 on aggregate. Standard Liege defeated Everton 2-1 to take the two-leg series 4-3.

Stuttgart drew 2-2 with Cherno More Varna, but progressed 4-3 past the Bulgarians; Schalke had a comfortable 4-1 first-leg advantage over Apoel Nicosia and played out a 1-1 draw; Wolfsburg drew 1-1 with Rapid Bucharest to oust the Romanians 2-1 on aggregate; and after a scoreless first leg Hamburg overcame Unirea Valahorum Urziceni 2-0 in Romania.

Benfica turned around a 3-2 first-leg loss to beat Napoli 2-0, with goals from Jose Antonio Reyes and Nuno Gomes.

Milan didn’t need to exert themselves to defend a 3-1 lead from the first leg at the San Siro two weeks ago.

OFFSIDE TRAP

The goal arrived when Shevchenko timed his run to beat the offside trap and collect a pass before slipping his shot from 12m under Zurich goalkeeper Johnny Leoni.

Tottenham’s progression was secured by Arkadiusz Glowacki’s own-goal in the 58th minute.

The visitors had come under sustained pressure from Wisla, but menaced after the break with Fraizer Campbell firing over from distance on his first start, before playing a crucial role in Tottenham’s goal.

As Gareth Bale swung in a low cross from the left, Campbell was almost clinging to defender Glowacki, forcing the Wisla captain to clip the ball inside the far post.

As the Poles went in search of an equalizer, Gomes rescued Spurs by tipping over from Piotr Brozek in 80th but was beaten by his twin brother three minutes later. Pawel Brozek lobbed the onrushing Brazil goalkeeper, who made amends in the 87th by repelling the striker’s header while on his knees.

Udinese defender Aleksandar Lukovic converted the decisive spot kick after the Italians’ goalkeeper Samir Handanovic blocked shots from Tamas Hajnal and Jakub Blaszczykowski in the shootout.

Hajnal scored at the end of each half as Dortmund evened the aggregate following Udinese’s 2-0 win in the first leg.

Asier del Horno and David Villa scored second-half goals as Valencia rallied for a 2-1 victory over CS Maritimo, who trailed 1-0 going into the second leg.

Elano and Shaun Wright-Phillips scored within the first ten minutes of the second half to clinch Man City’s victory over their Cypriot opponents.

The Premier League club endured an anxious final 12 minutes after Oladimeji Rasheed Alabi exploited poor defending to pull one back for Omonia.

INITIATIVE

Despite the away-goal advantage following a 2-2 draw in England, Standard Liege took the initiative against Everton and teenager Axel Witsel slid the ball in from a tight angle in the 22nd minute.

Everton equalized when goalkeeper Espinoza fumbled a corner and Phil Jagielka pounced to jab the ball home in the 67th.

Eleven minutes later, Serbian forward Jovanovic ran through the Everton defense and was brought down in the penalty area. He stepped up to convert the penalty himself.


Four-time European champions Ajax breezed past Borac 2-0 to advance 6-1 on aggregate.

While Sampdoria rallied to beat Kaunas 2-1, the Italians’ passage was never in doubt thanks to a 5-0 victory two weeks ago.

Two-time winners Feyenoord went through on away goals, recovering from a 1-0 first-leg deficit to beat Kalmar 2-1.
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