Sparta draws 0-0 with Liverpool in Europa League

PRAGUE (AP): Liverpool is close to reaching the round of 16 of the Europa League after drawing with Sparta Prague 0-0 on Thursday.
The result left Liverpool a clear favourite for the second leg of the round of 32 match at Anfield in a week.
Sparta played its first competitive match since Dec 15 due to the Czech Republic's winter break, and looked more dangerous, especially in the first half.
Liverpool, badly missing its injured star playmaker and captain Steven Gerrard, had to wait for a decent chance until the 70th minute when right back Glen Johnson, one of the team's most active players, fooled a couple of Sparta defenders before his curling shot went just wide.
"It was a difficult game," Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish said. "We rather were more defensive. "As a manager that was fantastic," added Dalglish, who was managing Liverpool in Europe for the first time.
He said the team's performance was influenced by the fact he missed a number of players, including Daniel Agger and Christian Poulsen while Fabio Aurelio had to be replaced by Joe Cole due to an injury in the 37th minute.
Dalglish said it would be "a different game" next week and didn't ruled out Gerard, Agger and Aurelio could be available. As a positive sign, Dalglish hailed Cole's return after a knee problem.
"We have to be patient," he said. "Joe's a valuable asset for us." Unmarked Sparta midfielder Leony Kweuke came close to earning a win for Sparta but his low drive from inside the area was saved by Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina.
"It was not easy for us because we didn't play for more than two months," Sparta coach Josef Chovanec said. "We were trying to do our maximum. "We may have had better chances but it was defense that dominated the game."
Early in the second half, Kweuke's header again went wide. Long-range attempts by Marek Matejovsky and Kamil Vacek then just missed the target.
Sparta's first decent chance came in the 18th with Manuel Pamic breaking into the area after being released by Abena Biholong and his left-footer forced a diving save by Reina. Pamic blasting the ball over the bar in the 35th.
At that stage, Liverpool's only answer came through lone striker David Ngog, who had a shot blocked and a header missing the goal a minute before halftime.
The match was briefly suspended about 15 minutes before the end when Sparta fans let off a smoke bomb.
 

Ajax, Leverkusen claim big wins in Europa League

LONDON (AP): Ajax thrashed Anderlecht 3-0 to put one foot into the Europa League's last 16, while Villarreal drew 0-0 at in-form Napoli in another first-leg match in the first knockout stage on Thursday.

Toby Alderweireld, Christian Eriksen and Mounir El Hamdaoui scored for 1992 competition winner Ajax in a match between two former champions in Brussels.

Serie A topscorer Edinson Cavani had a goal disallowed for offside and was denied twice by Villarreal goalkeeper Diego Lopez as Napoli, the only Italian team left in Europe's second-tier club competition, was held at San Paolo Stadium.

Sidney Sam's double in second-half injury time helped Bayer Leverkusen to a 4-0 rout of Metalist Kharkiv, Benfica rallied to beat Stuttgart 2-1 at home, and Ukrainian giant Dynamo Kiev won 4-1 at Besiktas.

Alderweireld scored the opener against the team from the country of his birth, heading home a corner in the 33rd minute, and then provided the assist for Eriksen's goal in the 60th.

Marcin Wasilewski missed a penalty for Anderlecht, which won the competition in 1983 when it was called the UEFA Cup, before El Hamdaoui wrapped up victory by beating the offside trap and sweeping in a finish in the 69th.

Cavani has 20 goals in the Italian league this season and five in the Europa League, but he was unable to add to his total against Villarreal, which was fourth in the Primera Liga.

Lopez kept out two efforts from the Uruguay forward in the first half and then tipped over a shot by Ezequiel Lavezzi after the break. "We found out the level we need to play in the competition," Napoli coach Walter Mazzarri said. "Considering who we were playing, this isn't a bad result."

Villarreal, which has never won in Italy, wasted its best chance when Borja Valero blasted wide when he had time and space in Napoli's area.

Eren Derdiyok, Gonzalo Castro were the other scorers for Leverkusen, which was second in the Bundesliga behind runaway leader Borussia Dortmund.

Martin Harnik's 21st-minute lob put Stuttgart in front at the Stadium of Light but Oscar Cardozo and Franco Jara scored in the second half to complete Benfica's recovery.

Former AC Milan and Chelsea striker Andriy Shevchenko was one of Kiev's scorers in its thrashing of Besiktas. Ricardo Quaresma canceled out Kiev's opening goal by Ognjen Vukojevic but Shevchenko, Ayila Yussuf and Oleh Gusev's penalty eased the visitors home.

Late strikes by Luuk de Jong and Peter Wisgerhof earned Dutch champion FC Twente a 2-0 win at Rubin Kazan, Artjoms Rudnevs netted the winner for Polish side Lech Poznan in a 1-0 home victory over Braga, and Peguy Luyindula's last-minute strike salvaged Paris Saint-Germain a 2-2 draw at BATE Borisov.

Two-time winner Sevilla's home match against Iberian rival FC Porto was the standout game of the seven last-16 first-leg fixtures to be played later Thursday.

 

Serbs get lengthy jail term for killing French fan

BELGRADE: The four ringleaders of Serbian fans convicted of killing a supporter of French club Toulouse ahead of a Europa League match in September 2009 were each sentenced to up to 35 years in prison on Tuesday.

The landmark verdict handed a total of 240 years to 14 Partizan Belgrade fans for beating up Brice Taton, who died in hospital 12 days after he was clubbed with bats, iron bars and flares before being thrown off a wall.

Two of them, Djordje Prelic and Dejan Puzigaca, are still on the run but were sentenced to 35 and 32 years respectively after being tried in absentia by the Belgrade Senior Court.

Ivan Grkovic and Ljubomir Markovic got 30 years each, four other fans were sentenced to 14 years each and another four got 12 years each.

Slobodan Ruzic, the lawyer of Taton’s parents who attended the nine-month long trial and the sentencing, said they were satisfied with the verdict.

“The parents maintain that the punishment fits the crime and we hope that any appeal will be rejected by the court,” Ruzic told reporters.

“It should never have come to this and the Serbian authorities are also responsible for not cracking down on football violence sooner,” he added.

Friends and relatives of the accused left the courtroom sobbing and police were deployed in large numbers after dozens of Partizan fans gathered in front of the building.