PSV ends Ramos' UEFA Cup reign as Spurs bow out
LONDON: PSV Eindhoven relinquished Juande Ramos' hold on the UEFA Cup after the Dutch league leader knocked out his Tottenham Hotspur side in a penalty shootout to reach the quarterfinals on Wednesday.
The Spanish coach had guided Sevilla to back-to-back triumphs in 2006 and 2007, but Spurs bowed out after Pascal Chimbonda fired his spotkick wide to hand PSV a 6-5 win in the shootout. Spurs, with a Dimitar Berbatov goal, had won 1-0 after extra time at the Philips stadium to finish 1-1 on aggregate.
Premier League rival Everton also lost on penalties to Fiorentina while competition favorite Bayern Munich eased through 6-2 on aggregate against Anderlecht, despite suffering a first home defeat of the season in any competition after the Belgians restored some pride with a 2-1 victory.
Bayer Leverkusen, Zenit St Petersburg and Getafe also advanced to the last eight.
Bayern Munich coach Ottmar Hitzfeld handed a number of fringe players a start against Anderlecht having routed the Belgians 5-0 in the first leg.
Defender Lucio extended Bayern's advantage with an early goal but to its credit, Anderlecht battled back to win the game with strikes from Serhat Akin and Oleksandr Yakovenko.
Dumped out
Former winner Bayer Leverkusen dumped out Bundesliga rival Hamburg SV in a thrilling second-leg tie, which it lost 3-2 but went through on away goals.
Separated by just one place and one point in the Bundesliga, fourth-placed Leverkusen struck first against third-placed Hamburg with a 19th-minute goal from Sergej Barbarez.
The Bosnian forward, who spent six years with Hamburg before joining Leverkusen in 2006, redirected a free kick from Tranquillo Barnetta past Frank Rost to leave the home side up.
Substitute Piotr Trochowski gave his team hope with a 53rd-minute equalizer but Greek striker Fanis Gekas, the first-leg match-winner, replied immediately.
Peruvian international Paolo Guerrero equalised with 25 minutes remaining and in a late rally Dutch midfielder Rafael van der Vaart struck with nine minutes left, but Hamburg could not get another and bowed out.
"We're fortunate to go through. We were lucky they didn't get a third goal. I'm not very happy about our defense. But I'm happy we're through," said Leverkusen coach Michael Skibbe.
Fine fightback
Zenit eliminated Marseille in the last 16 for the second time in three seasons thanks to Pavel Pogrebnyak's double in a 2-0 victory at the Petrovsky stadium with the Russian champion prevailing on away goals.
The striker netted in each half to cap a fine fightback in the tie, kick-started by a late goal from Andrei Arshavin in the first leg after Marseille had stormed into a three-goal lead.
Fiorentina weathered a fierce battering at Goodison Park to see off Everton 4-2 on penalties after the English side had overturned a 2-0 first-leg defeat with goals from Andrew Johnson and Mikael Arteta.
Fiorentina keeper Sebastien Frey, at fault for Everton's opening goal, made a string of outstanding stops in normal time and saved Phil Jagielka's spotkick in the shootout.
Getafe added to Benfica's woes with a 1-0 home victory putting the Spaniards through 3-1 on aggregate. Benfica parted company with coach Jose Antonio Camacho at the weekend after a 2-2 draw against bottom team Uniao Leira.
Two last 16, second-leg ties take place on Thursday. Werder Bremen hosts Scottish league leaders Rangers needing to overturn a 2-0 first-leg loss while Portugal's Sporting, losing finalist in 2005, starts all-square at 1-1 with Bolton Wanderers in Lisbon.
The final is in Manchester on May 14.
Agencies
(China Daily 03/14/2008 page24)
