Posts Tagged ‘Kaunas’

UEFA Cup First Round, Leg 2 – Benfica End Napoli’s Dream, Milan, Sampdoria, and Udinese Move On

Friday, October 3rd, 2008

One team short. Serie A’s chance to get a “perfect quartet” into the UEFA Cup GS round will have to wait another year.

Indeed, three of Italy’s four UEFA Cup contenders are through to the group stage as AC Milan, Sampdoria and Udinese all won their first-round ties. Udinese needed a penalty shoot-out to thwart an impressive Borussia Dortmund comeback but Napoli are out after they were unable to prevent Benfica overturning a first-leg deficit.

Uefa.com reports.

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UEFA Cup First Round, Leg 1 – Viva Italia: Clean Sweep for Milan, Sampdoria, Napoli, and Udinese

Friday, September 19th, 2008

Italian teams made 4 out of 4 in the UEFA Cup Thursday night. Indeed, in the round just before the Group Stage all four Serie A sides in action recorded first-leg victories, some welcome news after the difficulties Roma and Fiorentina encountered in the Champions League. Uefa.com reports. Partial video highlights here.

Seven-time winners AC Milan are having to adjust to a rare season without UEFA Champions League football (not to mention a terrible start to the Serie A campaign) and they quickly found their feet with a morale-boosting triumph against FC Zürich. Meanwhile Sampdoria were the night’s big winners, hitting five past FBK Kaunas in Genoa, while Napoli held off a spirited Benfica and Udinese impressed in their away win to Borussia Dortmund.

Milan vs. Zürich

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After opening the Serie A season with successive defeats, Milan lifted their spirits with a convincing win against Zürich. Andriy Shevchenko twice went close for the Rossoneri before playing a part in the opening goal a minute into added time at the end of the first half. Zürich goalkeeper Johnny Leoni saved his shot but Marek Jankulovski was on hand to volley in the rebound.

Zürich striker Alexandre Alphonse’s 66th-minute header hit the post and just seconds after that Alexandre Pato doubled Milan’s advantage with a 25-metre free-kick. Substitute Marco Borriello made it three after being teed up by Shevchenko on 74 minutes, though the Rossoneri’s celebrations were tempered by Dušan Djuric‘s 30-metre drive soon after which ensures Zurich return to the Letzigrund with a foothold still in the tie.

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 AC Milan
MILAN-ZURICH
3-1
FC Zürich
GOALSCORERS: 45’ Jankulovski (M), 56’ Pato (M), 73’ Borriello (M), 78’ Djuric (Z).
MILAN (4-3-1-2): Dida – Antonini, Bonera, Kaladze, Jankulovski – Ambrosini (68’ Emerson), Flamini, Seedorf – Kaká – Pato (65’ Borriello), Shevchenko (75’ Ronaldinho). (bench: Kalac, Favalli, Darmian, Gattuso). Coach: Ancelotti.
ZURICH (4-4-1-1): Leoni – Stahel, Tihinen, Barmettler, Stucki – Djuric, Aegerter, Okonkwo, Alphonse – Abdi (88
Mehmedi), Hassli (77’ Nikci). (bench: Guatelli, Lampi, Koch, Buchel, Sconbachler). Coach: Challandes.

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Sampdoria vs. Kaunas

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Emiliano Bonazzoli and Antonio Cassano both scored twice as Sampdoria put one foot in the group stage with a crushing victory against the Lithuanian champions. Bonazzoli broke the deadlock when he headed in Angelo Palombo’s corner (14) and added a second eight minutes later. Cassano got in on the act before the break and scored again 12 minutes into the second half with a fine curling free-kick.

A dire night for Kaunas was compounded when Vytautas Lukša was sent off for a second yellow card with three minutes to play before substitute Bruno Fornaroli headed another in the final minute.

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 U.C. Sampdoria
SAMPDORIA-KAUNAS
5-0
FBK Kaunas
GOALSCORERS: 14’, 21’ Bonazzoli (S), 35’, 57’ Cassano (S), 90’ Fornaroli (S).
SAMPDORIA (3-5-2): Mirante – Lucchini, Gastaldello, Bottinelli – Stankevicius, Delvecchio, Palombo (79’ Dessena), Sammarco, Pieri (46’ Ziegler) – Cassano (59’ Fornaroli), Bonazzoli. (bench: Castellazzi, Franceschini, Mustacchio, Marilungo). Coach: Mazzarri.
KAUNAS (4-5-1): Dreer – Radzius, Baguzis (46’ Rikmevicius), Kancelskis, Manchkhava – Zubavicius, Ivaskevicius (79’ Arouri), Mendy, Zelmikas, Luksa – Ledesma. (bench: Vertelis, Valskis, Fridikas, Cinikas, Mamic). Coach: Couceiro.

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Napoli vs. Benfica

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Napoli prevailed in a five-goal thriller at the Stadio San Paolo, but Luisão’s 59th-minute strike to reduce the arrears leaves Benfica well placed for the return. The Portuguese side had appeared in good stead in Italy when David Suazo (16) headed them in front, yet within three minutes goals from Luigi Vitale and German Denis had turned the match on its head.

Both owed much to good fortune and there was more than a hint of luck in Napoli’s third goal ten minutes after half-time too as Léo diverted Christian Maggio‘s cross past Quim. Luisão quickly responded, however, to leave the tie in the balance.

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 S.S.C. Napoli
NAPOLI-BENFICA
3-2
S.L. Benfica
GOALSCORERS: 16′ Suazo (B), 18′ Vitale (N), 20′ Denis, 55’ Maggio (N), 60’ Luisão (B).
NAPOLI (3-5-2): Navarro – Santacroce, P.Cannavaro, Contini – Maggio, Blasi (46’ Pazienza), Gargano, Hamsik (76’ Pià), Vitale; Denis (66’ Zalayeta), Lavezzi. (bench: Gianello, Rinaudo, Aronica, Montervino). Coach: Reja.
BENFICA (4-4-2): Quim – Maxi Pereira, Luisão, Sidnei – Urreta (46’ Balboa), C.Martins (56’ Katsouranis), Yebda, Reyes – Di María (63’ Nuno Gomes), Suazo. (bench: Moreira, Amorim, Jorge Ribeiro, Vitor). Coach: Quique Flores.

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Dortmund vs. Udinese

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First-half goals from Antonio Floro Flores and Gokhan Inler put Udinese in the driving seat at the Westfalenstadion as the Italian side made the most of some sloppy Dortmund defending to take control of the tie. Floro Flores struck on the break 8 minutes in before Swiss international Inler doubled the advantage when he turned in Simone Pepe’s cross with 34 minutes played.

A young Dortmund side regrouped after the interval but were fortunate not to fall further behind as they pressed for a way back into the tie.

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BV Borussia Dortmund
DORTMUND-UDINESE
0-2
 Udinese Calcio
GOALSCORERS: 8′ Floro Flores (U), 34′ Inler (U).
BORUSSIA DORTMUND (4-4-2): Weidenfeller – Rukavina, Subotic, Hummels (23′ Santana), Lee – Blaszczykowski, Hajnal (63’ Frei), Kehl, Kringe – Valdez, Zidan (9’ Tinga). (bench: Ziegler, Federico, Klimowicz, Schmelzer). Coach: Klopp.
UDINESE (4-3-3): Handanovic – Ferronetti (83’ Motta), Coda, Domizzi, Lukovic – Inler, D’Agostino, Isla – Pepe, Floro Flores (78’ Quagliarella), Sanchez (68’ Di Natale). (bench: Belardi, Sala, Pasquale, Tissone). Coach: Marino.

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UEFA Cup 2008-09 – First Round DRAW

Friday, August 29th, 2008

One day after that of the Champions League, the draw for the First Round of the UEFA Cup 2008-09 took place in Monaco Friday.

Lots of teams involved, but of course right now we’re only concerned with the Serie A clubs, which didn’t fare too badly to be quite honest.
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2008/09 UEFA Cup
First Round
to be played September 18 and October 02

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Borussia Dortmund
Dortmund
vs
Udinese
Udinese
AC Milan
AC Milan
vs
Zürich
FC Zürich
Sampdoria
Sampdoria
vs
Kaunas
FBK Kaunas
Napoli
Napoli
vs
Benfica
SL Benfica


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AC Milan probably have it easiest facing against FC Zürich, who came in 3rd last year in the Swiss Super League (after having won it in 2006 and 2007). Some of the Rossoneri will remember their stadium (Letzigrund), because Italy played two of their Euro 2008 games there (vs. Romania and France). Looking back at ancient history one also finds that, believe it or not, Zürich also managed to reach the Semi-finals of the European Champions Cup (now called UEFA Champions League) in 1964 and 1977. Ya, we’re all thinking the same thing: eons ago.

Sampdoria will play against FBK Kaunas, current Lithuanian champions. Wow… Lithuania? Easy right? Not so much. FYI, these guys eliminated Glasgow Rangers in the UCL second qualifying round (2-1 aggregate), then went on to lose 0-4 aggregate to Aalborg. Hard to gauge therefore. With Antonio Cassano in fine form though, Walter Mazzarri’s boys should breeze through.

As for Udinese and Napoli, well… the draw could have been better. The North-Eastern Bianconeri were a seeded team, but still managed to pick Borussia Dortmund (a team with a prestigious football past, but which in the past 5-6 years has been doing sh*t), while the Azzurri probably got one of the toughest opponents in SL Benfica (who by the way just signed striker David Suazo from Inter today).
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Full UEFA Cup First Round Draw

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APOEL
vs.
Schalke
Nordsjælland
vs.
Olympiacos
Slaven
vs.
CSKA Moskva
Brøndby
vs.
Rosenborg
Cherno More
vs.
Stuttgart
Rennes
vs.
Twente
Borac
vs.
Ajax
Tottenham
vs.
Wisła Kraków
Moskva
vs.
København
Žilina
vs.
Levski
Dortmund
vs.
Udinese
Braga
vs.
Artmedia
Feyenoord
vs.
Kalmar
Hamburg
vs.
AFC Unirea Urziceni
H. Tel-Aviv
vs.
St-Étienne
Litex
vs.
Aston Villa
Austria Wien
vs.
Lech Poznań
Setúbal
vs.
Heerenveen
Brann
vs.
Deportivo
Slavia
vs.
Vaslui
AC Milan
vs.
Zürich
FC Timişoara
vs.
Partizan
Hertha
vs.
St Patrick’s
Baník
vs.
Spartak Moskva
Beşiktaş
vs.
Metalist
Portsmouth
vs.
Guimarães
Kayserispor
vs.
PSG
Sevilla
vs.
Salzburg
Wolfsburg
vs.
Rapid Bucureşti
Sampdoria
vs.
Kaunas
Marítimo
vs.
Valencia
Dinamo Zagreb
vs.
Sparta
Omonia
vs.
Man. City
Young Boys
vs.
Club Brugge
Nancy
vs.
Motherwell
Everton
vs.
Standard
Napoli
vs.
Benfica
Bellinzona
vs.
Galatasaray AŞ
NEC
vs.
Dinamo Bucureşti
Racing
vs.
Honka