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At the top Bayern beats Spartak 3-0 to edge closer to last eight
Updated: Thursday February 22, 2001 4:54 AM
MOSCOW (Reuters) -- Bayern Munich virtually assured themselves of a place in the last eight of the Champions League when two goals from Germany midfielder Mehmet Scholl clinched a 3-0 win over Spartak Moscow on Wednesday. Bayern's win, on an icy pitch in sub-zero degree weather, also just about killed off any hopes Spartak may have had of qualifying from Group C. It was Bayern's second win over Spartak in eight days following their 1-0 win in Munich last week. Scholl struck a goal in each half before substitute Paulo Sergio finished off the Muscovites three minutes from time. Bayern top the group with 10 points from four matches. The Bavarians took the lead in the 17th minute when Scholl latched on to a scrambled pass from Brazilian Elber to curl a shot past Spartak keeper Alexander Filimonov from the edge of the box. But Bayern did not dominate everything. German international keeper Oliver Kahn had to made a key save at the feet of Maxim Kalinichenko when he was put through by dangerous playmaker Yegor Titov. Bayern sat back in the second half and soaked up intense Spartak pressure. After 75 minutes Bayern's Bosnian international Hasan Salihamidzic was pulled down when through on goal and Scholl clipped the resulting penalty into the top right-hand corner of Spartak's net. The third goal came on 87 minutes when an increasingly desperate Spartak gave away a free kick close to the right-hand corner of their penalty box. Stefan Effenberg clipped it in for substitute Paulo Sergio to head back across goal and inside Filimonov's far post. "Just before we went 2-0 up Spartak had lots of chances close to our goal and we were pretty lucky they didn't equalize, which they deserved to do," Bayern coach Ottmar Hitzfeld said. "They played very well and risked a lot but that increased our chance to counter-attack and after we got the third goal we knew it was over." Spartak boss Oleg Romantsev said it could have been very different if two first-half penalty claims had gone his team's way. "We did everything we could to get a result but to win against a club like Bayern you need at least two things -- a bit of luck and an objective referee -- and we did not have those here in Moscow," Romantsev said.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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