Mixed fortunes

Ipswich scrapes late win in UEFA Cup qualifying

LONDON (Reuters) -- Three former winners of the UEFA Cup had mixed fortunes in the first qualifying round of this season's competition on Thursday as Ipswich Town and Ferencvaros collected victories but IFK Gothenburg lost.

The night's 40-match program featured a host of barely-known names from many of Europe's lesser footballing nations but there was also the odd big fish swimming amongst the minnows.

Ipswich, whose sole European success came in 1981, won 1-0 at Luxembourg's Avenir Beggen but left it late as Marcus Stewart slid home a low shot in the last minute.

Ipswich were relegated from the English premier league last season but qualified for the UEFA Cup via the Fair Play system.

Ferencvaros of Hungary have to go back to 1965 for their moment of glory when the competition was still called the Inter-City Fairs Cup but they turned on the style on Thursday with a 4-0 home thrashing of AEL Limassol of Cyprus.

Two goals in two minutes by Attila Tokoli had Ferencvaros comfortably ahead after 11 minutes before two in three minutes early in the second half by Zoltan Gera and Igor Szkukalek.

Good week

Following the shock 1-0 victory over Manchester United by compatriots Zalaegerszeg on Wednesday and a 2-2 away UEFA Cup draw for Ujpesti against KI Klarksvig in the Faroe Islands on Thursday, it's been a good week for Hungarian soccer.

Gothenburg, the most recent of the three former UEFA Cup winners after lifting the trophy in 1982, lost 3-1 at Zimbru Chisinau, where two goals for Viorel Frunze and one for Levan Gvazava in the first half gave the Moldovans the advantage.

Red Star Belgrade can claim probably the best pedigree of those in the qualifying round, having won the European Cup in 1991, and while they have slipped badly since then the Yugoslavs were too strong for Kazakhstan debutants Kairat Almaty.

Goals for Igor Bogdanovic and substitute Dragan Mrdja either side of halftime gave Red Star a 2-0 away win and Kairat's day took a further downward turn when Dilmurat Shayakhmetov was sent off 12 minutes from time.

This is the first year Kazakhstan have competed in Europe and their other representatives, Atyrau, did somewhat better, drawing 0-0 at home against Slovakia's Puchov.

European trophy

Aberdeen, another club with a European trophy on their honors list having won the Cup Winners' Cup under Alex Ferguson in 1983, edged to a 1-0 home win over Moldovans Nistru Otachi thanks to a 59th-minute Darren Mackie header.

Fellow Scots Livingston, making their European debut after their surprise third-place league finish last season, drew 1-1 at Vaduz of Liechtenstein in the only match played on Tuesday.

Slovenia's Primorje led the way on the goalscoring front as they thrashed Zvartnots Yerevan of Armenia 6-1, helped by four second-half goals from Mitja Zatkovic, while four other teams chalked up 5-0 wins.

Litex Lovech of Bulgaria beat Atlantas Klaipeda of Lithuania, Varteks of Croatia thumped Ireland's Dundalk, Poles Amica Wronki overcame Welsh side TNS Llansantffraid while Zenit St Petersburg got their five at Andorra's FC Encamp.

Because of the unstable security situation in Israel, Hapoel Tel Aviv were forced to play the home leg of their match again Albania's Partizani Tirana in the neutral city of Sofia.

A 49th-minute goal by Josef Abukasis gave the Israelis a 1-0 victory but the game did not prove much of an attraction for the local Bulgarians as a crowd of only 90 watched the game.

The second leg matches will be played on August 29.

Results

 
    - -
    In Tallinn: Levadia Tallinn (Estonia) 0 Maccabi Tel Aviv
(Israel) 2
    Scorers: Prohorenkovs 4, Oved 23
    Halftime: 0-2
    - -
    In Nicosia: Anorthosis Famagusta (Cyprus) 3 Grevennacher
(Luxembourg) 0
    Scorers: Marius Pierkarsky 21, Wojeck Kowascyk 43, Panicos
             Xiourouppas 79pen
    Halftime: 2-0; Attendance: 6,000
    - -
    In Tirana: FK Tirana (Albania) 0 Nacional Bucharest
(Romania) 1
Scorer: Marian Radu 36pen
    Halftime 0-1; Attendance: 4,000
    - -
    In Klaksvik: KI Klaksvik (Faroe Islands) 2 Ujpest (Hungary)
2
    Scorers:
    KI Klaksvik - Allan Morkore 44, 53
    Ujpest - Tamas Juhar 13, Balazs Farkas 68
    Halftime: 1-1
    - -
    In Dnipropetrovsk: Metalurg Zaporizhya (Ukraine) 3
Birkirkara (Malta) 0
    Scorers: Armen Akopyan 17, Valentin Ivanov 53, Alexander
             Brdanin 68
    Halftime: 1-0; Attendance: 4,000
    - -
    In Copenhagen: FC Copenhagen (Denmark) 3 Lokomotiv Tbilisi
(Georgia) 1
    Scorers:
    FC Copenhagen - Todi Jonsson 41, 56, Thomas Roll 47
    Lokomotiv Tbilisi - Dzhanashiya 9
    Halftime: 1-1; Attendance: 10,692
    - -
    In Chisinau: Zimbru Chisinau (Moldova) 3 IFK Gothenburg
(Sweden) 1
    Scorers:
    Zimbru Chisinau - Viorel Frunze 20, 36, Levan Gvazava 25
    Gothenburg - Sebastian Henriksson 35
    Halftime: 3-1; Attendance: 7,000
    - -
    In Stockholm: AIK Stockholm (Sweden) 2 IBV Vestmannaeyjar
(Iceland) 0
    Scorers: Daniel Hoch 26, Krister Nordin 90
    Halftime: 1-0; Attendance: 6,983
    - -
    In Lovech: Litex Lovech (Bulgaria) 5 Atlantas Klaipeda
(Lithuania) 0
    Scorers: Kiril Nikolov 29, Stoicho Stoilov 57, Hristo Yovov
             69, 73, Desislav Russev 79
    Red card: Romualdas Maciulevicus (Atlantas Klaipeda) 89
    Halftime: 1-0; Attendance: 3,500
    - -
    In Bucharest: Rapid Bucharest (Romania) 2 Nova Gorica
(Slovenia) 0
    Scorers: Constantin Schumacher 19, 72pen
    Halftime 1-0; Attendance: 8,000
    - -
    In Belfast: Glentoran (Northern Ireland) 0  Wisla Krakow
(Poland) 2
    Scorers: Wisla Krakow - Maciej Zurawski 73pen, Daniel
                            Dubicki 88
    Halftime: 0-0
    - -
    In Budapest: Ferencvaros (Hungary) 4 AEL Limassol (Cyprus) 0
    Scorers - Attila Tokoli 10, 11, Zoltan Gera 55, Igor
              Szkukalek 58
    Halftime: 2-0; Attendance: 12,000
- -
    In Olomouc: Sigma Olomouc (Czech Republic) 2 Sarajevo
(Bosnia) 1
    Scorers:
    Sigma Olomouc: Pavel Putik 45, Pascal Ekwueme 76
    Sarajevo: Adnan Osmanhodzic 30
    Halftime: 1-1; Attendance: 5,343
    - -
    In Luxembourg: Avenir Beggen (Luxembourg) 0 Ipswich Town
(England) 1
    Scorer: Marcus Stewart 90
    Halftime: 0-0; Attendance: 3,000
    - -
    In Reykjavik: Fylkir (Iceland) 1 Excelsior Mouscron
(Belgium) 1
    Scorers:
    Fylkir - Sverrir Sverrisson 58pen
    Excelsior Mouscron - Christophe Gregoire 27
    Halftime: 0-1; Attendance: 1,500
    - -
    In Split: Hajduk Split (Croatia) 3 GI Gotu (Faroe Islands) 0
    Scorers: Vlatko Djolonga 22, Stipe Pletikosa 60pen, Zvonimir
             Deranja 84
    Halftime: 1-0; Attendance: 5,000
    - -
    In Wrexham: Bangor City (Wales) 1 Sartid Smederevo
(Yugoslavia) 0
    Scorer: Paul Roberts 69
    Halftime: 0-0
    - -
    In Aberdeen: Aberdeen (Scotland) 1 Nistru Otachi (Moldova) 0
    Scorer: Darren Mackie 59
    Halftime: 0-0
    - -
    In Dublin: Shamrock Rovers (Ireland) 1 Djurgarden (Sweden) 3
    Scorers:
    Shamrock Rovers - Stephen McGuinness 49
    Djurgarden - Samuel Wowaoah 24, 52, Kim Kallstrom 70
    Halftime: 0-1
    - -
    In Serravalle: Domagnano (San Marino) 0 Viktoria Zizkov
(Czech Republic) 2 - result
    Scorers: Jiri Sabou 28, Ludek Straceny 78
    Halftime: 0-1
    - - - -
    Played on Tuesday:
    In Vaduz: FC Vaduz (Liechtenstein) 1 Livingston (Scotland) 1
    Scorers:
    FC Vaduz - Franz Bergmeier 61
    Livingston - Oscar Rubio 51
    Halftime: 0-0

 

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