Maccabi Haifa's draw gets easier
Upset winner over Paris St. Germain gets SV Ried
Posted: Friday October 02, 1998 10:30 AM
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Michael Owen and Liverpool will meet Valencia in the second round Clive Brunskill/Allsport |
GENEVA (AP) -- Surprise conqueror of Paris St. Germain
on Thursday, Israel's Maccabi Haifa has been rewarded with an easier
game against Austria's SV Ried in the second round of the Cup
Winners Cup.
A deflected injury time winner by Alon Mizrahi gave Maccabi a
3-2 victory over the French powerhouse, a Cup Winners titlist only
two seasons ago, just as PSG appeared to be going through on the
basis of scoring more away goals.
Liverpool must play Valencia and Premier League leader Aston
Villa faces Celta Vigo in two England vs. Spain matchups created by
Friday's UEFA Cup draw.
Italian league leader Fiorentina meets Switzerland's
Grasshoppers while Roma has a tough game against managerless Leeds
United, Parma visits Poland's Wisla Krakow in the first leg when
Bologna hosts Slavia Prague.
With clubs segregated to avoid clubs from the same country
playing each other, many of the strong teams stayed apart.
But the draw means that the last 16 may be without two of the
three English clubs or two of the five Spanish teams.
Although Celta Vigo has drawn all four of its Spanish league
games so far including a 2-2 draw with mighty Barecelona, it seems
to be saving its best form for the UEFA Cup.
On Tuesday the Spanish team crushed Arges of Romania 7-0 with
three goals from veteran Bulgarian striker Luboslav Penev.
Valencia, whose last European triumph was in the Cup Winners Cup
in 1980, is confident of surprising four-time Champions Cup titlist
Liverpool.
"It seems to us a very exciting [draw]," said club spokesman Jose
Lopez. "We're going into it very happy. I would say it's 50-50,
but we're fairly confident."
Stuttgart, one of three German survivors, faces Belgium's Club
Brugges having produced one of the greatest comeback in the
competition's history.
On Tuesday, Stuttgart scored a 3-0 victory at Feyenoord to wipe
out the Dutch club's 3-1 triumph in the first leg in Germany.
In the Cup Winners Cup, star-studded defending titlist Chelsea,
which scraped into the second round after a goalless draw with
modest Swedish club Helsingborg, goes to FC Copenhagen in the first
leg. The Danish club crushed Levski Sofia 4-1 Thrsday to gain the
second round.
Chelsea managing director Colin Hutchinson said the first leg
mey be moved to Chelsea because the same field at the Parken
stadium will be used the previous day for the Brondby vs.
Manchester United Champions Cup game.
Poul-Erik Petersen, FC Copenhagen's sports director, admitted
his team had drawn the toughest opponent.
"But there will be a lot of interest for the Danish people,
because Brian Laudrup will be playing for Chelsea," he said.
"There will be high interest to watch a great team like Chelsea."
Lazio, another leading contender, only made it on the away goals
rule after gaining a 2-2 draw with Lausanne and now meets Partizan
Belgrade, conquerer of Ruud Gullit's Newcastle by the same rule.
Mallorca has been drawn to meet Belgium's Genk but will be
replaced by Hearts if the Scottish club wins its protest that the
Spanish club's goalposts were the wrong size.
The two teams drew 1-1 on Thursday so that Mallorca advanced 2-1.
But Hearts complained to UEFA that the goalposts at one end of the
Luis Sitjar Stadium were too close together.
Ramon Servallas, director of external relations for the Spanish
clu, argued that whatever the dimensions of the goalposts, neither
team was favored over the other.
"The protest makes no sense, but they have all the right in the
world to make it," he said.
"It must be said that in the morning inspection of the pitch
the goal was inspected" and UEFA officials found nothing unusual.
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