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Surprises in First Leg of UEFA Cup Quarterfinals |
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Written by Martin Bishop
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Saturday, 05 April 2008 |
All four road teams got results in the first leg of Soccer Betting UEFA Cup Quarterfinal action this week. Getafe got a last minute goal to get a very surprising draw at Bayern Munich while Zenit St. Petersburg routed Bayer Leverkusen 4-1. PSV Eindhoven and Sporting Lisbon got important draws at Fiorentina and Rangers respectively. Soccer Betting at SBG Global.
Getafe was able to tie Bayern on a 90th minute goal by Cosmin Contra. He chipped the ball over the defense and goalkeeper Oliver Kahn was out of position. Bayern had taken the early lead on a goal from Luca Toni in the 26th minute. "I'm really mad, we should have won with all our chances," Toni said, "But we didn't score any more goals. Now it's clear - we will go to Getafe to win." Bayern will be the favorite to win considering they are a four-time champion of the European Cup.
 "We have good chances in the second leg," Bayern coach Ottmar Hitzfeld said. "We have shown in the Bundesliga we can win away matches." Bayern is in the hunt for three titles this season as they lead the Bundesliga by seven points and they are still in the German Cup.
Zenit, the Russian league champion, is in the best position to advance to the semifinals of the UEFA Cup as they routed Leverkusen. "That was really sobering," Leverkusen coach Michael Skibbe said. "We were all so off our game you can't pin it on individuals." Pavel Pogrebnyak, Aleksandr Anyukov and Igor Denisov scored for Zenit to break a 1-1 tie. Pogrebnyak scored his eight goal of the competition. He is now tied with Luca Toni for most goals in the competition this season.
In the PSV match, Adrian Mutu put Fiorentina in front in the 56th minute but Danny Koevermans came right back and tied for PSV in the 63rd minute.
"We tried to quicken the pace but they're a great club," Fiorentina coach Cesare Prandelli said. "We've got to go to Holland now to try to score a goal and win the game." PSV will be without their best striker in the second leg as Jefferson Farfan picked up a yellow card in added time.
Rangers and Sporting played to a scoreless draw as neither team really threatened in the first half. In the second half, Leandro Grimi had a shot go wide and Rangers goalkeeper Allan McGregor made a nice save on Vukcevic. Anderson Polga headed one over the crossbar and Leonel Tonel missed late in the match. "It was very frustrating - we didn't play well at all," Rangers assistant manager Ally McCoist said. "We were as poor with the ball as we have been for a long time. But it's a clean sheet and we are capable of going anywhere in Europe and scoring a goal - as we've proved.
"We know we can play a lot better, but not losing a goal at home in the first leg is a reasonable result."
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