UEFA Cup, third round

Reigning champions Valencia are out of the competition after losing on penalties to Steaua Bucharest. Defending a two goal lead from the first leg, Ranieri's side held their own on a rain-soaked muddy pitch until four minutes after the restart, when Christea ran on to a long ball out of midfield to score. And twenty minutes before the end of normal time he repeated the act to make it 2-0 on the night and level overall. With no further goals in extra time the game went to the penalty shoot out, and although Palop saved Steaua's first kick, Baraja and Di Vaio missed the last two to give the Romanians a 4-3 victory.

Three other Spanish sides made it through to the last 16 though after they won through their second leg ties. Sevilla beat Panathinaikos 2-0 to overturn the one goal victory by the Greek side from the first leg, although they left it late to do so. The visitors defended successfully until they were reduced to ten men a quarter of an hour from the end when Ezequiel González was sent off. Caparrós threw on all his fire power, and Makukula levelled the tie with a headed goal from Adriano's cross. And with the game heading to extra time, Darío Silva and Antoñito combined for Adriano to strike the winner and take his side through to a meeting with Parma.

A good victory as well for Zaragoza, who beat Turkish league leaders Fenerbahçe 2-1 to book their place in the next round. Despite a one goal lead from the first leg Víctor Muñoz was not taking any chances, and he put out a strong line up. And it paid off when Galletti fired in a free kick off the far post to open the scoring with only ten minutes gone. Savio added a second after the break, beating Rüstü with a shot from outside of the area which also went in off the post to put the result beyond the reach of the visitors, although Alex did get a late consolation goal with a couple of minutes to go.

Villarreal had little trouble seeing off Dynamo Kiev, beating the Ukranains 2-0 to set up a fourth round tie with Valencia's conquerors Steaua Bucharest. After a 0-0 draw in the first leg, Pellegrini's side seemed to have everything tied up when they raced in to a two goal lead within the first half hour, Figueroa starting things off with a header from José Marí's cross and Cazorla taking a return pass from José Marí to chip keeper Shovkovskiy. But things got a bit more complicated when Riquelme was sent off for retaliating just before the break, and the visitors had a goal disallowed and hit the woodwork in the second half before the referee finally called it a day.

After their match last week was called off due to a heavy snowfall, Athletic Bilbao returned to play Austria Vienna in their first leg tie. The conditions were not much better though, and the game ended without goals. The Basque side had the better of the game throughout, with Yeste, Orbaiz, Ezquerro and Etxeberría all trying their luck at goal, but Lafuente had to be on his toes to keep out efforts from Sionko in the first half and Gilewicz later on. The return leg takes place in Bilbao on Sunday, with the winner to face Zaragoza in the fourth round next month. (24.02.05)