The Hindu : Sport / Football : French quintet out of tune in UEFA Cup

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 17, 2006

Sport

Sport - Football

French quintet out of tune in UEFA Cup

PARIS: France's quintet of UEFA Cup challengers suffered a myriad of fortunes in the last 32 first leg clashes on Wednesday. Monaco and Marseille — two sides who have experienced glorious Champions League moments — will go into the second legs in danger of exiting the competition after the former lost 1-0 away to Basel and the latter drew 0-0 away at Bolton.

Lens look dead and buried after they were humbled 3-0 away at Udinese.

There was better fortune for the other two as Strabourg belied their relegation troubles in the domestic league by beating Bulgarian outfit Litex Lovech 2-0 away while Lille beat Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk 3-2 at home.

However, the scoreline would have been far better for the unglamorous French side had they not conceded two goals in the last three minutes.

Marseille were perhaps a bit fortunate to head back home with a 0-0 draw after Frederic Dehu looked to have deliberately handled the ball in his area in the first-half.

"It was blatant," Bolton manager Sam Allardyce fumed. "The defender's arm came up and hit the ball. The referee even had a clear sight of it between the players. I just hope it doesn't cost us."

In fact, Allardyce believed that his side should have had a second one when goalkeeper Fabien Barthez brought down Kevin Davies. Marseille handler Jean Fernandez said that Dehu had handled the ball but he had a good enough excuse for doing so. "He (Dehu) was pushed in the back," said Fernandez.

The scores: Artmedia Bratislava 0 lost to Levski Sofia 1; FC Basel 1 bt Monaco 0; Heerenveen 1 lost to Steaua Bucharest 3; Hertha Berlin 0 lost to Rapid Bucharest 1; Litex Lovech 0 lost to Strasbourg 2; Lokomotiv Moscow 0 lost to Sevilla 1; Lille 3 bt Shakhtar Donetsk 2; Rosenborg 0 lost to Zenit St. Petersburg 2; Schalke 2 bt Espanyol 1; Bolton 0 drew with Marseille 0; Udinese 3 bt Lens 0; Club Brugge 1 lost to AS Roma 2; Real Betis 2 bt AZ Alkmaar 0. — AFP

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