Round of 16: Second Leg Results
By: Dan | March 18th, 2010The Europa League field is down to eight teams after an incredible day of results.
Fulham – Juventus kicked things off for US television. Fulham topped their elimination of Shakhtar Donetsk in the previous round by pulling off a stunning upset to knock Juventus out. After winning 3-1 in Turin, Juventus were in a fairly comfortable position. It took less than two minutes into today’s match for Juventus to apparently finish off the tie. Some less than composed defending led to a poor clearance, which was promptly fired past Mark Schwarzer by David Trezeguet. Things did not stay on script from there. Fulham equalized shortly after when Bobby Zamora beat Fabio Cannavaro to a cross, leaving him with just the keeper to beat. After the equalizing goal, Fulham’s attacks mainly consisted of what used to be called ‘putting it into the mixer,’ which actually did make Juventus look uncomfortable at times, though when Juventus did come forward with the ball, Fulham had difficulty getting it back. Juventus were reduced to ten men in the 26th minute when Cannavaro was sent off after a very cynical pull back on Zoltan Gera, who was about to receive a dangerous Zamora pass. Fulham made full use of the man advantage, as they began to dominate proceedings. Chimenti had to make a very good save from the subsequent Zamora free kick. Fulham’s next scoring opportunity was another free kick, and they were very unlucky not to add a second goal. Simon Davies swinging effort towards the back corner came off the crossbar. Fulham hit the post again from the ensuing corner, but would not be denied for much longer. Their next attacking move finally resulted in a Gera goal, after some nice one touch passing down the wing, allowing Fulham to go into halftime with renewed hope.
Fulham got their aggregate equalizer to open the second half. A Damien Duff cross struck Diego on the hand, for a penalty decision that will surely cause some arguments, and Gera sent Chimenti the wrong way for the penalty kick. Having the aggregate score leveled seemed to stir Juventus a little bit, as they finally eased off some of Fulham’s pressure. There was a debatable penalty non-decision around the hour mark, as Gera was forced to the ground between two Juventus defenders without any intervention from the officials. Things calmed down somewhat, but Fulham were still definitely pressing for a decisive goal, which they finally got in the 82nd minute. Substitute Clint Dempsey hit an absolutely exquisite 18 yard chip into the top corner of Chimenti’s net. Juventus started lashing out at this point, as Zebina was sent off and Melo should have been for delivering kicks for no other reason than Fulham were going through. Fulham continued scrapping until full time though, almost adding a fifth goal, and completed another memorable Europa League upset. Juventus fans have probably started on the conspiracy theories since the game ended, but they appeared to be completely unprepared for Fulham to continue fighting after conceding in the opening two minutes. Unless any long time Fulham fans know of something that tops it, this might actually be the biggest result in Fulham’s history.
Valencia went into their second leg at Bremen missing Abelda, Ever Banega, Pablo Hernandez, and David Navarro, but it didn’t appear to affect their performance in Germany. They eliminated last season’s finalists on away goals. This match featured the onslaught of goals that the first leg hinted at. Werder’s attacking once again bordered on the suicidal, and they found themselves two goals down inside of fifteen minutes, though Werder had two chances to equalize between Villa’s opener and Mata’s second. Hugo Almedia pulled one back for Werder, but David Villa restored Valencia’s two goal lead just before halftime. Unfortunately for the Bundesliga side, this would be a continuing pattern throughout the night. Werder leveled the score at 3-3 only for another David Villa goal to put Valencia back in front. Claudio Pizarro got things to 4-4 with under five minutes left, but that was the end of the scoring, and Werder Bremen were left to rue the chances they missed in Valencia last week.
There were less goals, but plenty of drama in the south of France. Benfica eliminated Marseille with a stoppage time goal. At 0-0 Benfica were the side that needed to score, thanks to Marseille’s late away goal in the first leg, and the Portuguese side were more threatening, but Marseille went ahead in the 70th minute. Mamadou Niang and Brandao exchanged passes from a Benoit Cheyrou free kick, allowing Niang to tap the ball in. Benfica would not be punished for their profligate finishing though. Five minutes later, a Maxi Periera free kick was deflected past Steve Mandanda. Stoppage time heartbreak would be inflicted on Marseille when Pablo Aimar’s free kick was sent into a crowded area. Benfica’s Alan Kardec emerged with the ball, and shot past Mandanda. Hatem Ben Arfa’s stoppage time contribution was less helpful in this leg. He was sent off for a nasty kick aimed at scorer Kardec.
Standard Liege won 3-1 in Greece, but declared that they were approaching their match with Panathinaikos as if the score was 0-0. For their part, Panathinaikos claimed that they were better than Standard Liege and should be able to win 2-0 in Belgium. The cautious approach (rather than the blustering braggart approach) paid off for the Belgian champions, as they dispatched a Panathinaikos side that rarely threatened them with a 1-0 win to go through comfortably on aggregate.
Atletico Madrid and Sporting featured in the late US tv match. There was hardly time to settle down before Serigo Aguero beat three defenders to a cross and scored from close range. The next twenty minutes or so were underwhelming, at which point the GolTV feed was lost. During the time the signal was out, Sporting grabbed an equalizer when Liedson hit a powerful header past De Gea. Aguero restored Atletico’s lead with some wonderful close control in the 33rd minute. He collected a nice through ball and cut back between two defenders before angling a low drive into the net with the outside of his foot. Atletico seemed happy to pass the ball among themselves after taking the lead, but Sporting struck just before halftime. A Miguel Veloso free kick was turned into the net. Sporting were the better side to start the second half. De Gea kept things level early in the second half when he denied a good scoring chance from Saliero. There wasn’t much else to be said for Sporting’s efforts after that. They couldn’t find a way past Atletico, and the La Liga side will progress to the quarter finals on away goals.
Anderlecht – Hamburg proved to be yet another high scoring affair on this match day. Anderlecht played more like the team that destroyed Bilbao than the timid side that showed up in Hamburg last week. Anderlecht won 4-3 on the night, but the result didn’t help them except in the way of compensatory pride. The Belgians would have needed an additional two goals to progress, as Hamburg chalked up three away goals.
Liverpool overcame their first leg loss to Lille. An early penalty leveled things on aggregate for Liverpool, and seemed to deflate Lille, who created little during this match, although Eden Hazard did miss an opportunity to equalize in the first half. Fernando Torres seized on a defensive error to make it 2-0, and added a third late in the match.
Wolfsburg and Rubin Kazan could not be separated during normal time in this tie. Alan Kasaev and Obefemi Martins exchanged goals to send the tie into extra time, where Cesar Navas was sent off for Rubin Kazan. Wolfsburg pressed forward once they had the man advantage, and Christian Gentner scored with penalty kicks looming to send Wolfsburg through.
Anderlecht 4 – Hamburg SV 3 (Hamburg SV 6 – Anderlecht 5)
Wolfsburg 2 – Rubin Kazan 1 (aet) (Rubin Kazan 2 – Wolfsburg 3)
Sporting CP 2 – Atletico Madrid 2 (Atletico Madrid 2 – Sporting CP 2)
Olympique Marseille 1 – Benfica 2 (Benfica 3 – Olympique Marseille 2)
Standard Liege 1 – Panathinaikos 0 Panathinaikos 1 – Standard Liege 4)
Liverpool 3 – Lille OSC 0 (Lille OSC 1 – Liverpool 3)
Fulham 4 – Juventus 1 (Juventus 4 – Fulham 5)
Werder Bremen 4 – Valencia 4 (Valencia 5 – Werder Bremen 5)
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