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No escape Glasgow Rangers handed tough trip to Moscow
Updated: Friday September 28, 2001 9:42 AM
NYON, Switzerland (Reuters) -- French club Troyes, who knocked Newcastle United out of the Intertoto Cup to claim a place in the UEFA Cup, returns to England to play Leeds United after the draw for the second round was made on Friday. Troyes sailed through the first round with a 6-2 aggregate win over Ruzomberok of Slovakia, while Leeds eased through with a 3-0 victory over Maritimo of Portugal on Thursday night after losing the away leg 1-0. Leeds club secretary Ian Silvester told Reuters: "First of all, obviously we are pleased to be in the second round, especially after the bit of a scare we had against Maritimo. "Troyes are unknown to us. It's their first UEFA campaign and they have no historic achievements in Europe, although they qualified through the Intertoto Cup and we are aware they had a good win over Newcastle. "We had a big shock to our systems in Maritimo, but we put that right last night and we won't take this lightly. We will prepare for Troyes as if we were preparing for AC Milan or Valencia. Maybe everyone (the players) did take them (Maritimo) lightly, but given our result and our desire to do well, I would be surprised if we approached another match the same way again." Old rivals re-united Rangers, which did not want to travel to Russia to play Anji Makhachkala of Dagestan in the last round and eventually played the tie as a one-off in neutral Warsaw, will go back to Russia after all to face Dynamo Moscow. Rangers' only European honor came in 1972 when it defeated Dynamo 3-2 in the European Cup Winners' Cup final in Barcelona. Long before that it had famously met in a 2-2 draw in Glasgow in front of 90,000 fans when Moscow visited Britain on a post-World War Two goodwill tour in November 1945. This Dynamo team is not quite in the same caliber though and only struggled through the first round with a 1-0 aggregate win over minnows Birkirkara of Malta. Paris St Germain, whose place in the competition was only ensured after a disciplinary committee meeting Thursday, will face Lothar Matthaeus' Rapid Vienna in the second round. PSG beat Rapid 1-0 in the 1996 European Cup Winners' Cup final in Brussels. PSG was involved in a controversial first round, second leg match on Tuesday against Rapid Bucharest, which was abandoned after floodlight failure with PSG leading 1-0 on aggregate in extra time. Although PSG was awarded the win, UEFA also fined it 15,000 Swiss francs (US$9,299) for leaving the ground without a decision being taken about whether to finish the match or not. Rapid Bucharest has until Sunday night to lodge an appeal, but PSG club president Laurent Perpere said: "I'm very confident. I think the UEFA disciplinary committee made a very clear decision and I am very confident that decision will be confirmed. But we could yet have to replay the match. That's not yet been decided, so let's not worry about it." Valencia, European Cup runner-up in the last two seasons, will play Legia Warsaw, while Italian giant Inter Milan, which won the UEFA Cup three times in the 1990s, also plays Polish opposition in Wisla Krakow. Inter will have to play its home leg in Trieste, but Krakow wants the second leg game, set for November 1, re-scheduled because it is a religious holiday in Poland. Its home leg might also be played in Chorzow 100 miles away. Fiorentina has been drawn against Tirol Innsbruck for the second successive season and will be looking to improve on the last outcome after Tirol beat it in the first round 5-3 on aggregate. AC Milan faces Bulgaria's CSKA Sofia, while the 1999 winner Parma faces FC Utrecht of the Netherlands. Contrasting luck The two Israeli teams making a rare appearance in the second round of a European competition had contrasting luck. Maccabi Tel Aviv will play Roda JC Kerkrade, a tie it could win, but Hapoel Tel Aviv was drawn against Chelsea and its interest in the competition is likely to end. As with Austria's visit to Israel for a World Cup match on October 7, security will be one of the issues. Chelsea managing director Colin Hutchinson said the club planned to visit Tel Aviv next Tuesday and Wednesday to make security arrangements. "That is no different from a visit to any other club. We're going to take an observer from the FA and a local police commander and we will talk about all aspects of the match including security. "Certainly the Israeli club is no more concerned than normal but we will talk to the foreign office if we need to but lets take it one step at a time. The draw has just been held." "We don't know much about the team. I do know they're playing a local derby tomorrow (Saturday) with the other Tel Aviv team and we will try to have someone there to watch." The first legs are scheduled to be played on October 18 and the second legs on November 1.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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