HAMBURG, 18 September 2004 — Danish striker Ebbe Sand struck three goals to send German side Schalke 04 on their way to a 5-1 victory over Latvian outfit Metalurgs Liepaja in the UEFA Cup Thursday.
Meanwhile, German league leaders Stuttgart downed Hungary’s Ujpest Budapest 3-1 with the Brazilian striker Cacau opening and closing the account for Matthias Sammer’s side in the 25th and 90th minutes.
But the victory came with a bitter taste after what appeared to be a serious injury to German international striker Kevin Kuranyi, scorer of Stuttgart’s second goal on the half hour.
Kuranyi was taken by ambulance to hospital for checks on a suspected ankle ligament tear after a tackle by Gabor Nagy, who netted for Ujpest in the 63rd minute.
Schalke’s first-round, first-leg victory was a boost coming a day after coach Jupp Heynckes was dismissed following the club’s worst start to the German league season in 11 years.
Another Bundesliga club, Bochum, settled for a goalless draw in Belgium against Standard Liege.
In other games, Lazio enjoyed a comfortable 3-0 win at Ukraine’s Metalurg Donetsk courtesy of goals from Tomasso Rochi in the 73rd minute, Cesar in the 75th and Goran Pandev five minutes from time.
But fellow Italians Udinese slipped to a 3-1 defeat at Greek side Panionios. Meanwhile, 2002 UEFA Cup winners Feyenoord were 1-0 winners at Norway’s Odd Grenland, Trabzonspor of Turkey edged Spain’s Athletic Bilbao 3-2, while two goals from Patrick Kluivert earned English side Newcastle a 2-0 win over Israeli outfit Bnei Sakhnin.
Spanish side Villareal came away from Sweden’s Hammarby with a 2-1 win. In a bad night for Swedish clubs, Djurgarden were trounced 4-0 by Dutch side Utrecht, and Elfsborg went down 2-0 at Croatia’s Dynamo Zagreb.
Four goals in a 16-minute, second-half spell gave Wisla Krakow a thrilling 4-3 win over Dinamo Tbilisi of Georgia.
Wisla, top of the Polish League with five wins from five games, went behind to goals from Jaba Kankava and Kakhaber Aladashvili but hit back after the break with three goals in four minutes through Damien Gorawski, Maciej Zurawski and Tomasz Frankowski.
Frankowski added his second to put the home side 4-2 ahead before Dato Kvirkvelia netted again for Tbilisi from a free-kick on 82 minutes. In Moscow, a second-half goal from Christian Gimenez earned Swiss champions Basel a 1-1 draw against Terek Grozny after the Russian Cup holders had taken a first-half through Andrei Fedkov.
Elsewhere Irish side Shelbourne came from two goals down to hold visiting Lille 2-2. Fellow French hopes Sochaux drubbed Norway’s Stabaek 4-0 but the French second division team Chateauroux were thrashed 4-0 at Belgium’s Brugge.
