UEFA Cup Hopefuls Set Out Their Stalls

AFC Ajax and Olympique de Marseille both continued fine form on the domestic front ahead of their UEFA Cup Round of 16 return while FC Shakhtar Donetsk impressed against Ukrainiain rivals FC Metalist Kharkiv. uefa.com rounds up the weekend performances from all the clubs involved in second leg ties this week.

AS Saint-Etienne - Werder Bremen
A 90th-minute winner from Nassim Akrour condemned St-Etienne to a 1-0 defeat away to Grenoble Foot 38 and pushed them back into the relegation zone after AJ Auxerre's shock success away to champions Olympique Lyonnais. By contrast, mid-table Bremen ended a run of six league matches without a victory in some style as they beat VfB Stuttgart 4-0. Diego opened the scoring in the 34th minute, Claudio Pizarro made it 2-0 after the restart and Markus Rosenberg helped himself to a late double.

AFC Ajax - Olympique de Marseille
Ajax made it 13 points from their last five Eredivisie outings with a comfortable 3-0 win at home to De Graafschap. Luis Suárez scored in either half while Darío Cvitanich made it 2-0 just before the break. Marseille are only two points worse off over the same period in Ligue 1 as they leapfrogged Paris Saint-Germain FC into second, a point behind leaders Lyon, with a 3-1 victory at the Parc des Princes. Boudewijn Zenden broke the deadlock on 24 minutes and, though Ludovic Giuly levelled for PSG, the hosts had Zoumana Camara sent off after the break. OM took full advantage with Bakari Koné and Lorik Cana completing the scoring.

SC Braga - Paris Saint-Germain FC
Braga's title aspirations faded in Portugal as they were held to a 1-1 draw by A. Académica de Coimbra and it could have been worse as they trailed until Paulo César's second-half equaliser. Jorge Jesus's side are now fourth, eleven points off the pace in the Liga. PSG are only one point off the summit in France, but passed up the chance of moving top of Ligue 1 after Lyon's slip, but lost 3-1 at home against Marseille – their first Ligue 1 defeat in eight games – and sli[[ed to third in the standings.

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FC Metalist Kharkiv - FC Dynamo Kyiv
Metalist's dip in form continued as they made it just one point from three games after a 3-0 reverse at home to Shakhtar, who leapfrog them into second spot. Dynamo beat Metalist in the league on 4 March and then again in the first leg of their UEFA Cup tie last week, and Yuri Semin's side continue to stride clear in Ukraine after a 3-1 win – their fifth straight league victory – at FC Metalurh Zaporizhya lifted them 12 points clear at the summit. Miloš Ninković, Artem Milevskiy and Carlos Corrêa scored after the interval to overturn an early opener from Oleksiy Godin.

FC Shakhtar Donetsk - PFC CSKA Moskva
Shakhtar's victory at Metalist was their eighth on the trot in the Ukrainian Premier League and hauled them above their opponents into second spot. Fernandinho's penalty on 17 minutes set them on their way, Luiz Adriano scored a key second on the stroke of half-time and Dmytro Chygrynskiy (90) added gloss. CSKA made a dream start on the first weekend of the Russian league campaign with an Alan Dzagoev strike and a Sergei Ignashevich double in the second half contributing to a 3-0 win against FC Saturn Moskovskaya Oblast.

Galatasaray AŞ - Hamburger SV
Fifth-placed Galatasaray missed the chance to gain ground in the title race as a late Gustavo Colman equaliser earned hosts Trabzonspor a 2-2 draw. The visitors, now five points from the summit, appeared on course for a third consecutive league victory against one of the sides ahead of them in the standings when Milan Baroš and Arda Turan overturned an early Alazinho opener. Hamburg successfully avoided a third straight Bundesliga reverse as goals from Ivica Olić and Piotr Trochowski gave them a 2-0 win at home to FC Energie Cottbus, leaving Martin Jol's side four points and three places from the top of the table.

FC Zenit St. Petersburg - Udinese Calcio
Zenit opened the Russian season with a creditable 1-1 draw away to FC Spartak Moskva, Pavel Pogrebnyak sealing a point for the UEFA Cup holders with a 16th-minute equaliser after an early strike from Ivan Saenko. A 1-1 scoreline has been no rarity at Udinese recently and for the third time in five league matches that was the outcome of their contest. Calcio Catania had led until Fabio Quagliarella (71) rescued a point for the home side, now 12th in Serie A.

Aalborg BK - Manchester City FC
The Danish side's average league campaign continued as they were held to an uninspiring 1-1 draw away to second-bottom SonderjyskE. Midfielder Andreas Johansson put the visitors in front on 33 minutes but they were left frustrated again when Jesper Kjærulff secured a point for the struggling hosts. AaB sit fifth in the 12-team Superligaen and Manchester City also remain in mid-table after they succumbed 1-0 at Chelsea FC, Michael Essien claiming the points for the London side on 18 minutes.

( UEFA )