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Upside-down Chelsea, Ajax, Celta ousted in UEFA Cup upsets
Updated: Thursday November 01, 2001 6:27 PM
LONDON (AP) -- Three high-profile, big spending European clubs were bounced out of the UEFA Cup's second round on Thursday -- Spain's Celta Vigo, England's Chelsea and former European Cup champion Ajax. Celta and Chelsea were embarrassed by two European minnows, and FC Copenhagen pulled the rug from under Ajax. Provincial Czech side Slovan Liberec shocked Celta Vigo, winning 3-0 to advance 4-3 on aggregate. Chelsea managed only a 1-1 draw at home and went out to Israel's Hapoel Tel Aviv 3-1 on aggregate. The Israeli club is reported to operate on about five percent of Chelsea's budget. Former European champion Ajax was also booted out, losing 1-0 at home against the Danes. The draw for the UEFA Cup third round -- and the Champions League second phase -- was set for Friday. Slovan Liberec substitute Jan Nezmar scored twice in the match played in Liberec, Czech Republic, in the biggest cup win in the modest Czech club's history. Jiri Stajner opened the scoring in the 38th with Nezmar getting his in the 71st -- the deciding goal -- and the clincher in second-half injury time. Hapoel picked up one of the biggest wins in Israeli soccer history, treating thousands of wildly cheering fans who filled Stamford Bridge stadium in west London. Milan Ostrec gave Hapoel a 1-0 lead in the 36th minute after Chelsea had dominated the early possession but failed to scored. It was Hapoel's first shot on goal after Chelsea had had a half dozen. Substitute Gianfranco Zola made it 1-1 in the 64th with a 20-meter (yard) shot that gave the Blues a chance. Zola had a point-blank shot in the 86th that he failed to score on -- one of about 20 chances Chelsea let escape. In a match in Amsterdam, Niclas Jensen's free kick seven minutes from time handed FC Copenhagen the 1-0 victory over Ajax Amsterdam. The Danish side advanced on a 1-0 aggregate after a scoreless first leg. Jensen drove the ball high into the net past a seven-man wall after Brazilian Maxwell was penalized for dangerous play 22 meters (25 yards) in front of the Ajax goal. In other matches Thursday: At Troyes, France, Robbie Keane put home a second-half header to send Leeds into the third round of the UEFA Cup despite losing 3-2 at Troyes. Leeds advanced 6-5. David O'Leary's men were headed out of the tournament when Keane flicked in a superb left pass from Mark Viduka. The Irish midfielder cartwheeled across the area after netting the qualifier. Gharib Amzine, David Hamed and Jerome Rothen scored for the French. Mark Viduka scored Leeds' other goal. At Innsbruck, Austria, Radoslav Gilewicz scored twice as Tirol drew Fiorentina 2-2. The Italians still advanced 4-2 on aggregate. Nuno Gomes and Domencia Morfeo scored for Fiorentina. At Moscow, Ronald de Boer scored a goal and set up another as Glasgow Rangers beat Dynamo Moscow 4-1, advancing 7-2. Barry Ferguson, Tore Andre Flo and Russell Latapy also scored for the Scots with Rolan Gusev getting Dynamo's only goal. At Valencia, Spain, the Spanish, after 1-1 draw in Poland, demolished Legia Warsaw 6-1 to advance 7-2. The high-flying Spaniards got goals from six different players: Miguel Angulo, Juan Sanchez, Pablo Aimar, Miroslav Djukic, Adrian Ilie and David Albelda. At Vienna, Austria, two early goals by Rapid Vienna's Rene Wagner in the opening minutes and goals later by Lionel Potillon and Hugo Leal of Paris Saint Germain left the match a 2-2 draw with PSG advancing 6-2. At Sofia, Bulgaria, AC Milan advanced with a 1-0 victory over CSKA Sofia on the winning goal by Filippo Inzaghi. Milan advanced 3-0 after winning the first leg 2-0 in Italy. At Parma, Italy, Parma held FC Utrecht to a scoreless draw to advance to the third round 3-1. The Italians packed in its defense, protecting a secure advantage from the first leg. In other results Thursday: PAOK and Pribram drew 2-2 with Greek side PAOK advancing 8-3; Germany's Freiburg defeated St. Gallen 4-1 and advanced 4-2; Hertha Berlin defeated Viking Stavanger 2-0, advancing 3-0; Roda advanced 5-3 despite losing 2-1 at Maccabi Tel Aviv; Grasshoppers moved on 6-5 despite losing 4-2 at Twente Enschede; Brondby won 5-0 and moved through 6-3 over Varteks; Bordeaux won 2-0 at Standard Liege to advance 4-0. Club Brugge defeated CSKA Kiev 5-0 to advance 7-0; Servette edged Spain's Zaragoza 1-0, advancing 1-0; Ipswich defeated Helsingborg 3-1 and advanced 3-1; Portugal's Sporting advanced 7-1 after a 6-1 win over Sweden's Halmstad. On Tuesday, Inter Milan, Liteks Lovech of Bulgaria and AEK Athens advanced to the third round. In addition, eight teams eliminated this week from the Champion League move into the UEFA Cup's third round: Lokomotiv Moscow, Borussia Dortmund, Real Mallorca, PSV Eindhoven, Celtic, Lyon, Lille and Feyenoord. Heroic Hapoel send Chelsea crashing in UEFA CupLONDON -- Heroic Hapoel Tel Aviv pulled off the best result by an Israeli team in the history of European club soccer when they knocked English Premier League Chelsea out of the UEFA Cup on Thursday.Hapoel forced a 1-1 draw with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the second leg of their second round tie to go through 3-1 on aggregate and become the first Israeli side to reach the third round of the competition. Their outstanding player was goalkeeper Shavit Elimelech who performed a series of brilliant saves throughout the 90 minutes as Chelsea rained in 34 goal attempts -- 19 of them on target. But Hapoel, already 2-0 up from the first leg two weeks ago, survived that onslaught and thoroughly deserved their victory to the delight of more than 3,000 of their own fans. Chelsea ultimately paid the price for sending a weakened squad to Israel for the first leg. Six players did not travel amid security fears after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. The only other Israeli team to advance this far since Israel joined UEFA 10 years ago was Maccabi Haifa who reached the quarter-finals of the European Cup Winners Cup in 1999. "I was happy with the performance but disappointed with the result," Chelsea's Italian coach Claudio Ranieri said. "My players played very hard but that's football." Hapoel stretched their overall advantage to 3-0 when Slovenian striker Milan Osterc scored after 36 minutes -- and were never overawed by the glittering array of talent lining up against them in blue shirts. The goal came when defender William Gallas fluffed a clearance and played the ball straight to Hapoel 30 meters from goal. After a quick exchange of passes, Istavan Pishont played a perfectly weighted pass through to Osterc 20 meters out. He controlled it well, moved in on goal and steered the ball home past the advancing Chelsea goalkeeper Mark Bosnich. Chelsea, who crashed out of the UEFA Cup last season to St Gallen of Switzerland, another underrated team, reacted with Ranieri sending on three attacking substitutes at halftime. It was one of them -- Gianfranco Zola -- who finally equalized with a deflected 20-meter right-foot curler after 64 minutes. Zola went close with four other near-misses and also hit the bar. Eidur Gudjohnsen headed against a post, Mikael Forssell saw two shots cleared off the line -- it was that sort of night. Chelsea, needing three more goals for an outright win, attacked almost non-stop until the end, but Elimelech was inspired and Chelsea could find no way through. Inzaghi goal gives Milan 1-0 win over CSKA SofiaSOFIA -- A 62nd-minute goal from Filippo Inzaghi gave AC Milan a 1-0 win over CSKA Sofia in their second round second leg UEFA Cup clash on Thursday and sealed the Italians a place in the third round.Inzaghi headed into the Bulgarian goal after a free kick by Serginho to clinch a 3-0 win on aggregate. After winning the first leg 2-0 at the San Siro, Turkish coach Fatih Terim was without injured captain Paolo Maldini, Ukraine striker Andriy Shevchenko and Demetrio Albertini. Portuguese midfielder Rui Costa, who twisted his left ankle during Milan's Serie A match against Bologna on Sunday, played 66 minutes before being substituted. "The result is real but we could score more goals," Terim told a news conference after the match. "After our 2-0 win in the first leg the initiative was ours but still we were mobilized and were seeking the goal which calmed us down," he added. CSKA coach Asparuh Nikodimov said he was satisfied with his side's performance and the discipline in the team. He played three forwards in his quest for goals against the Italian side, who are bidding to win the UEFA Cup for the first time, but were unable to capitalize on opportunities. The match was overshadowed by an incident just before Milan's goal when Terim said he made a remark to CSKA captain Lyuboslav Penev for hitting one of Milan's players. Penev was seen to hit the ball towards Milan's bench provoking an altercation between Terim and CSKA assistant coach Krassimir Bezinski, who was shown a yellow card.
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