LONDON, 8 August 2003 — Anderlecht revived memories of past European glory by reaching the third qualifying round of the Champions League on Wednesday.
Last season’s beaten UEFA Cup finalists Celtic and perennial Champions League qualifiers Rosenborg Trondheim also booked third round slots, while Vardar Skopje became the first side from Macedonia to reach that stage after stunning Russian Premier League leaders CSKA Moscow.
Celtic’s victory means five former European champions will line up in the final qualifying round as they join Benfica, Borussia Dortmund, Ajax Amsterdam and Olympique Marseille.
Belgium’s Anderlecht, once one of the biggest names in European football, staged a stunning fightback to overcome Romania’s Rapid Bucharest. Following a 0-0 draw in the away leg, the 1983 UEFA Cup winners found themselves 2-0 down in Brussels before three second-half goals from Nenad Jestrovic, Par Zetterberg and South Korea striker Seol Ki-hyeon turned the tie on its head. Anderlecht now play Poland’s Wisla Krakow, who brushed aside Cypriots Omonia Nicosia 7-4 on aggregate.
Celtic moved closer to reaching the group stages for the second time in three years by disposing of Lithuanian side Kaunas.
Playing without injured strikers Henrik Larsson and John Hartson, Celtic failed to match their goalscoring exploits from the first leg and settled for a 1-0 win to go through 5-0 on aggregate. An own goal from defender Darius Gvildys after 21 minutes was enough for victory at Celtic Park.
Celtic will take on Hungary’s MTK Budapest, who went through 3-2 despite a 1-0 defeat in Finland against HJK Helsinki.
Celtic’s Glasgow rivals Rangers will take on FC Copenhagen in the third qualifying round after the Danish champions completed a 10-1 aggregate demolition of Sliema Wanderers with a 6-0 victory in Malta.
Norway’s Rosenborg have reached the group stages for the last eight seasons but they must overcome Spain’s Deportivo Coruna to make it nine in a row.
Rosenborg thumped Ireland’s Bohemians 4-0 in Trondheim to seal a 5-0 win and can at least take heart that Deportivo should be without Roy Makaay by the time they meet if the Dutch striker’s move to Bayern Munich goes through. Big-spending Chelsea’s first taste of European football under new billionaire owner Roman Abramovich will come against Zilina after the Slovakian champions overcame Maccabi Tel Aviv 2-1 on aggregate.
A 1-1 draw in the second leg was enough to send Zilina through, sparing Chelsea the specter of re-living a past humiliation in Israel, having suffered a shock UEFA Cup second round exit at the hands of Hapoel Tel-Aviv in 2001. CSKA Moscow found that reputation counted for little in Skopje as Vardar followed up their 2-1 away win with a 1-1 draw to go through to a meeting with the Czech Republic’s Sparta Prague.
Elsewhere, Partizan Belgrade from Serbia and Montenegro set up a tie with Newcastle United after going through on the away goals rule against Sweden’s Djurgarden. Sasa Ilic and Nikola Malbasa scored for Partizan in a 2-2 draw after the first leg had ended 1-1.
Croatian champions Dinamo Zagreb also went through, overcoming Slovenian champions Maribor 3-2 on aggregate and now play Dynamo Kiev. Zagreb won the second leg 2-1, coming from behind for victory with goals from Andre Mijatovic and Dino Drpic.
Sporting Lisbon Humble Manchester United in Friendly
In Lisbon, Sporting eased to a 3-1 win over Manchester United in a preseason friendly on Wednesday played to mark the opening of the second of ten stadiums built or revamped for next year’s European soccer championships.
Sporting midfielder Luis Filipe became the first player to score at the 52,000-capacity Alvalade XXI stadium when he ran into the box in the 26th minute to pick up a long-range cross from teammate Rui Jorge on the left and beat Fabien Barthez.
As Sporting continued to dominate, captain Beto Severo was unlucky not to score when he forced Barthez into a spectacular flying save ten minutes from the break as United’s defense looked vulnerable.
New signing Djemba Djemba had the only real chance for a lackluster United in the first half when he beat Sporting goalkeeper Ricardo Pereira from 20 meters but saw the ball go agonizingly wide of the right post.
Clearly missing Ryan Giggs and Roy Keane, the English champions fell further behind last season’s third place Portuguese team in the 62nd minute. Former Portuguese international Joao Pinto put the Lisbon side 2-0 ahead when he beat Mikael Silvestre in the air to glance in a free kick from Brazilian teammate Fabio Rochemback.
In the hope of salvaging some pride Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson decided to bring on striker Ruud van Nistlerooy with 20 minutes remaining, but Pinto added to the visitors’ humiliation by making it 3-0 in the 80th minute.
Cristiano Ronaldo crossed a ball from the right into the penalty area, which Luis Lourenco flicked backwards into the path of an unmarked Pinto whose shot bounced in off the post. The visitors were gifted a consolation goal three minutes from the whistle, however, as Sporting’s Hugo Vieira tried to clear a cross from Solskjaer but only managed in slicing the ball into his own net.
