UEFA Cup: quarter-final second leg roundup

April 12, 2007

The second leg of the UEFA Cup quarter-final's occurred Thursday, with three Spanish teams looking to progress to the semi-finals. Osasuna was in the best position to advance after their 3-0 victory over Bayer Leverkusen in the first leg in Germany. Sevilla and Espanyol also held the upper hand going into their matches, as Sevilla defeated Tottenham 2-1 and Espanyol beat out Benfica 3-2 in the first legs. The final match was still completely up in the air after the 0-0 draw in the first leg between Werder Bremen and AZ Alkmaar.

Tottenham Hotspur 2 - 2 Sevilla
After loosing the first leg 2-1 in Spain, the second leg moved to White Hart Lane in London. Sevilla put the homeside on the backfoot early however, with a Steed Malbranque own-goal giving the visitors the lead. Some good play by former Tottenham striker Freddie Kanoute then doubled Sevilla's lead. Tottenham would score twice through Defoe and Lennon, but it would be too little too late as Sevilla progressed 4-3 on aggregate.

For a full recap of the match see: UEFA Cup: Tottenham out after 2-2 draw with Sevilla

Werder Bremen 4 - 1 AZ Alkmaar
After a scintillating 0-0 draw in the first leg, Dutch side AZ Alkmaar travelled to Germany to take on Bundesliga title hopefuls Werder Bremen. With Bremen having scored only one goal in their past three games, Alkmaar was in with a chance as a draw would see them advance. Bremen took control of the game quickly, however, and Tim Borowski put the home side up after sixteen minutes when he slipped in all alone and slid the ball past Boy Waterman. On 32 minutes, Alkmaar equalized through Moussa Dembele as his unstopable left footed shot flew past Tim Wiese. Five minutes later, Miroslav Klose restored Bremens lead as he tapped home Aaron Hunt's cross. The home side increased their lead after the break, and their top goal scorer Klose was again on the scoresheet. A well put in cross by Diego found Klose in the middle of the box, and his controlled diving head was powered past the helpless Waterman. Diego then secured the win for Bremen with some wonderful individual play. As Diego played a one-two, he spun away from the defender leaving him wide open for the receive pass, and he then proceeded to finish cleanly past Waterman.

Osasuna 1 - 0 Bayer Leverkusen
With the end result of the two legs never in doubt after the 3-0 drubbing of Bayer in the first leg, the second leg was play out at the Estadio Reyno de Navarra in Spain. Bayer needed to score early for any hope of advancing, and they pushed hard. A solid Osasuna defence and some great goalkeeping by Ricardo combined to shut Leverkusen out though. Osasuna eventually scored in the 62nd minute through Gomez Juanlu after keeper Rene Adler parried Roberto Solado's long range effort. Osasuna comfortably held on, and advanced to the semi-finals of the competition.

Benfica 0 - 0 Espanyol
Benfica and Espanyol battled to a 0-0 draw at the Estadio de Luz in Portugal. The Spanish side went into the match with a slight edge after winning the first leg 3-2, but the two away goals for Benfica gave them a good chance to progress. Benfica battled hard for the win, hitting the woodwork twice and missing several clean chances, but the eventual draw saw them knocked out of the competition.