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Hamburg, Villa advance

LONDON: Hamburg led a trio of former European champions into the UEFA Cup football knock-out phase on Thursday and previous winner Valencia also secured a last 32 place.

Aston Villa and Ajax Amsterdam progressed from Group F along with Hamburg, whose 2-0 victory at Slavia Prague meant Villa qualified despite a 2-1 home defeat by Slovakia’s Zilina.

Ajax did not play on Thursday but its six-point haul ensures the four-time European champion will be in the first knock-out round draw.

Valencia, the 2004 UEFA Cup winner, progressed from Group G after a 1-1 draw at home to Club Bruges.

VfL Wolfsburg and Braga qualified from Group E, joining favourite AC Milan, CSKA Moscow, Manchester City, St. Etienne, Udinese, Galatasaray, Standard Liege, Twente Enschede and Metalist Kharkiv who had already reached the last 32.

Hat-trick by Love

CSKA’s Brazilian striker Vagner Love scored a hat-trick, including an 88th-minute winner to secure a 4-3 victory at AS Nancy, as the 2005 UEFA Cup winner ended its Group H campaign with a perfect record of four wins from four matches.

Love, who scored in the 2005 final win over Sporting, is the leading marksman in this season’s competition with eight goals.

Goals in quick succession early in the first-half from Vladimir Leitner, who was later sent off, and Peter Styvar stunned the host. Villa’s only reply came from 17-year-old striker Nathan Delfouneso, who was making his first start.

Defeat for Villa was academic as a goal in each half from Ivica Olic and Mladen Petric secured Hamburg’s victory over Slavia in the Czech capital and left Martin Jol’s side, Villa and Ajax all with an unassailable six points.

Rallying to win

Hamburg’s Bundesliga rival Wolfsburg showed why it is a strong force at home by coming from 2-1 down to beat English Premier League side Portsmouth 3-2.

Wolfsburg is now unbeaten in its last six European home games and has won six out of seven Bundesliga matches at its own stadium this season.

The loss eliminated Portsmouth from the competition as Braga took the third qualifying place in the group with a 2-1 win over Heerenveen in the Netherlands. The remaining nine qualifying places up for grabs will be decided in the last round of group games on December 17 and 18.

The top three in each of the eight groups advance to the knock-out phase and will be joined in the last 32 by the eight clubs which finish third in the Champions League group stage.

The UEFA Cup final is in Istanbul on May 20, 2009.

The results:

Group E: Heerenveen 1 (Sibon 19) lost to Sporting Braga 2 (Renteria 35, Aguiar 56); Wolfsburg 3 (Dzeko 3, Gentner 23, Misimovic 74) bt Portsmouth 2 (Defoe 11, Mvuemba 14).

Group F: Slavia Prague 0 lost to Hamburg 2 (Olic 30, Petric 90-pen); Aston Villa 1 (Delfouneso 28) lost to MSK Zilina 2 (Leitner 16, Styvar 19).

Group G: Valencia 1 (Zigic 60) drew with Bruges 1 (Alcaraz 19); FC Copenhagen 1 (Antonsson 85) drew with Rosenborg 1 (Iversen 33).

Group H: Lech Poznan 1 (Rengifo 41) drew with Deportivo La Coruna 1 (Colotto 2); Nancy 3 (Zerka 5, Feret 72, Camerling 79) lost to CSKA Moscow 4 (Love 23, 62, 88, Ramon 33). — Agencies

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