Its back!In case you weren’t paying attention, which I doubt you were, the UEFA Cup returned this past Thursday for the knockout stages. Personally, I LOVE this competition. Unlike the Champions League, it doesn’t have any pretension at being a "champion competition", – honestly, two clubs from Ukraine?!? – but accepts its role as a minor-league tournament.
That said the matchups are always unique and unpredictable. Unlike the CL where you know who’s going to win an Arsenal-Slavia Prague match, a Bolton-Bayern tie is (somehow) a total crapshoot. And how often does a Grecian club defeat an English one? (sorry Rovers fans)
Like most two-legged knockout competitions, the initial home team usually has some advantage. And after the first leg, that truism held up. The home teams went 8-4-4, but Aberdeen’s 2-2 draw with Bayern is essentially a loss. Its also worth noting how poorly the “cold-weather" teams (i.e. those in Scandinavia and Russia) did, as their seasons haven’t even started yet.
Below are the results with video via Footytube and elsewhere:
(Home team in Caps)
ZENIT ST. PETERSBURG 1 – 0 Villareal
GALATASARAY 0 – 0 Bayer Leverkusen
AEK ATHENS 1 – 1 Getafe
Everton 2 – 0 BRANN
WERDER BREMEN 3 – 0 Sporting Braga
MARSEILLE 3 – 0 Spartak Moscow
ANDERLECHT 2 – 1 Bordeaux
PSV EINDHOVEN 2 – 0 Helsingborg
RANGERS 0 – 0 Panathinaikos
SPORTING LISBON 2 – 0 Basel
ABERDEEN 2 – 2 Bayern Munich
Hamburg 3 – 1 ZÜRICH
Fiorentina 1 – 0 ROSENBORG
Tottenham 2 – 1 SLAVIA PRAGUE
BOLTON 1 – 0 Atlético Madrid
BENFICA 1 – 0 Nuremberg
Posts
