- HOME
  - ENGLAND
  - SCOTLAND
  - EUROPE
     NEWS
     UEFA CUP
     EURO 2000
  - CHAMPS LEAGUE
  - GLOBAL
  - WORLD CUP 2002
  - EXTRA TIME
  - BETTING ZONE
  - SEARCH

  ESPN Network:
  ESPN.com
  ABCSports
  EXPN
  Fantasy Games
  ESPNdeportes.com

  -   NEWS
Friday, September 28, 2001
Troyes return to England, Rangers go to Russia after all

NYON, Switzerland, Sept 28 (Reuters) - French club Troyes, who knocked Newcastle United out of the Intertoto Cup to claim a place in the UEFA Cup, return to England to play Leeds United after the draw for the second round was made on Friday.

Troyes
Troyes: Victory in England
(Troyes celebrate/Allsport)
Troyes sailed through the first round with a 6-2 aggregate win over Ruzomberok of Slovakia, while Leeds eased through with a 3-0 victory over Maritimo of Portugal on Thursday night after losing the away leg 1-0.

Leeds club secretary Ian Silvester said: 'First of all, obviously we are pleased to be in the second round, especially after the bit of a scare we had against Maritimo.

'Troyes are unknown to us. It's their first UEFA campaign and they have no historic achievements in Europe, although they qualified through the Intertoto Cup and we are aware they had a good win over Newcastle.

'We had a big shock to our systems in Maritimo, but we put that right last night and we won't take this lightly. We will prepare for Troyes as if we were preparing for AC Milan or Valencia. Maybe everyone (the players) did take them (Maritimo) lightly, but given our result and our desire to do well, I would be surprised if we approached another match the same way again.'

Rangers, who did not want to travel to Russia to play Anji Makhachkala of Dagestan in the last round and eventually played the tie as a one-off in neutral Warsaw, will go back to Russia after all to face Dynamo Moscow.

Rangers only European honour came in 1972 when they defeated Dynamo 3-2 in the European Cup Winners' Cup final in Barcelona.

Long before that they had famously met in a 2-2 draw in Glasgow in front of 90,000 fans when Moscow visited Britain on a post-World War Two goodwill tour in November 1945.

This Dynamo team are not quite in the same calibre though and only struggled through the first round with a 1-0 aggregate win over minnows Birkirkara of Malta.

Paris St Germain, whose place in the competition was only ensured after a disciplinary committee meeting on Thursday, will face Lothar Matthaeus's Rapid Vienna in the second round.

PSG beat Rapid 1-0 in the 1996 European Cup Winners' Cup final in Brussels.

PSG were involved in a controversial first round, second leg match on Tuesday against Rapid Bucharest, which was abandoned after floodlight failure with PSG leading 1-0 on aggregate in extra time.

Although PSG were awarded the win, UEFA also fined them 15,000 Swiss francs (£7,000) for leaving the ground without a decision being taken about whether to finish the match or not.

Rapid Bucharest have until Sunday night to lodge an appeal, but PSG club president Laurent Perpere said: 'I'm very confident. I think the UEFA disciplinary committee made a very clear decision and I am very confident that decision will be confirmed. But we could yet have to replay the match. That's not yet been decided, so let's not worry about it.'

Valencia, European Cup runners-up in the last two seasons, will play Legia Warsaw, while Italian giants Inter Milan, who won the UEFA Cup three times in the 1990's, also play Polish opposition in Wisla Krakow.

Inter will have to play their home leg in Trieste, but Krakow want the second leg game, set for November 1, re-scheduled because it is a religious holiday in Poland. Their home leg might also be played in Chorzow 100 miles away.

Fiorentina have been drawn against Tirol Innsbruck for the second successive season and will be looking to improve on the last outcome after Tirol beat them in the first round 5-3 on aggregate.

AC Milan face Bulgaria's CSKA Sofia, while the 1999 winners Parma face FC Utrecht of the Netherlands.

The two Israeli teams making a rare appearance in the second round of a European competition had contrasting luck. Maccabi Tel Aviv will play Roda JC Kerkrade, a tie they could win, but Hapoel Tel Aviv were drawn against Chelsea and their interest in the competition is likely to end.

As with Austria's visit to Israel for a World Cup match on October 7, security will be one of the issues. Chelsea managing director Colin Hutchinson said the club planned to visit Tel Aviv next Tuesday and Wednesday to make security arrangements.

'That is no different from a visit to any other club. We're going to take an observer from the FA and a local police commander and we will talk about all aspects of the match including security.

'Certainly the Israeli club is no more concerned than normal but we will talk to the foreign office if we need to but lets take it one step at a time. The draw has just been held.'

'We don't know much about the team. I do know they're playing a local derby tomorrow (Saturday) with the other Tel Aviv team and we will try to have someone there to watch.

The first legs are scheduled to be played on October 18 and the second legs on November 1.

 

RELATED
UEFA Cup Second Round draw


soccernet.com: ADVERTISER INFO | CONTACT US | TOOLS | SEARCH
Copyright © 2001 ESPN Internet Ventures. Click here for Terms of Use and Privacy Policy applicable to this site.
Click here for employment opportunities with ESPN.com and soccernet.