BOLTON DRAW BLANK, BORO SWEEP THROUGH STUTTGART

 

(Images taken from BWFC.com and MFC.com)

 

OK...so, European football is back. OK, it's not the Champions League, that's next week but the UEFA Cup first knockout round still had a couple of interesting ties from a UK point of view. First up out of the 1st legs was Marseille(complete with Fabian Barthez) heading to the Reebok Stadium to see what they could do to a Bolton side that's had their uses in the competition.

Well Bolton tried their hand against Barthez early on but the ex-United nutcase kept punching their balls out. After a while Marseille got down to business but it was nothing that Jari Jaaskelainen couldn't handle. Hell knows why the Portugese ref had a grudge against United target Kevin Nolan but the Bolton midfielder kept getting hacked with no freekicks being given and added to that Marseilles man Frederic Dehu hanballed inside the box just before half time. No penalty.

The second half saw Marseiles have more of an edge but Jaaskelainen stood solid. Bolton should have had a few more penalties but of course the ref was a moron. Finally Stelios Giankopolous nearly looked like he'd scored in injury time but only hit the side netting. Overall 0-0 has to go down as 'not good enough' for Bolton. The tie goes accross the Channel with a completely blank sheet of paper and I can't see the Stade Velodrome being an easy place to get a result.

Next up to try their hand against continental opposition was Middlesborough. Fresh off their win over Chelsea they were headed to the Gottlieb-Daimler Stadion to take on vfB Stuttgart. It was a team with hit and miss form in the Premiership vs a team with hit and miss form in the Bundesliga that included the likes of Jesper Gronkjaer and John Dahl Thomasson with Markus Babbel on the bench. Best case scenario looked like a draw for Boro to take back home.

Stuttgart haad most of the attacking play early on but there was nothing Mark Schwarzer really had to worry about. Boro replied with a string of counter attacks and struck gold when Stuttgart's Fernando Meira made a mess of a clearance in the 20th minute. The ball found it's way to Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink and the Dutch assassin burned the home side's defence before hitting the net. It was a winded Stuttgart that staggered through the rest of the half, never worrying Steve McLaren's crew.

And in the 46th minute it was 2-0 Boro when George Boateng's cross found Stuart Parnaby's head for the midfielder's first goal in Europe. From here on in the German side had their work cut out for the tie, let alone the match. The locals lost interest though Stuttgart did pull one back when Daniel Ljuboja blasted in an 86th minute freekick. Mission accomplished for Boro though.

Elsewhere Zenit St Petersberg beat Rosenberg 2-0 at the Norweigians' Lerkendal stadium to put them on course for a rematch against group opponents Bolton or Marseilles while Roma beat Club Bruges 2-1 at the Jan Breydel Stadium to probably face Boro in the next round.

In the Premiership, the Scousers beat the Sunk Guns 1-0 at Anfield with Luis Garcia hitting the winner. That closes the gap to United in second place to three points which makes things interesting but Rafa Benitez's crew are now out of games in hand.

North of the border, a load of Scottish Cup 4th round ties got replayed. Falkirk beat Ross County 1-0 at the Division One side's Victoria Park, Dundee beat Airdrie 2-0 in an all D1 matchup at Dens Park, D2 Gretna upside D1 Clyde 4-0 at the underdog's Raydale Park, D1 St Mirren beat non-Leaguers Spartans 3-0 at Mirren Park while Partick, now in D2 beat Inverness CT on penalties at Firhill Park after a 1-1 draw.

So it's back to FA Cup action for the weekend.

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