Italian Trio Crash Out of UEFA Cup
LONDON, March 9 (Reuters) - Juventus, AS Roma and holders Parma crashed out of the UEFA Cup on Thursday, leaving Italy without a representative in the last eight for the first time since 1984.
Italian league leaders Juventus had two men sent off in the first half of their 4-0 thrashing at Celta Vigo, and went out 4-1 on aggregate. Parma also had a 1-0 first leg lead overturned and they went down 3-1 at Werder Bremen in the second leg.
Roma lost 1-0 at Leeds United following their goalless first leg while Udinese went out on the away goals rule to Slavia Prague on Tuesday. Racing Lens, Real Mallorca, Arsenal and Galatasaray also went through to the quarter-finals which will be played on March 16 and 23.
Serie A clubs have dominated the UEFA Cup in recent years, winning seven of the last 10 finals, three of them all-Italian affairs, and providing the runners-up in two of the other three. The three remaining Italian clubs faced tricky away ties on Thursday and Juventus's 1-0 advantage was wiped out after just a minute when Claude Makelele scored with a long range shot.
Antonio Conte and Paolo Montero were then sent off either side of a ridiculous own goal from Alessandro Birindelli in the 33rd minute as the Italians committed soccer suicide. Goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar handed Celta their third goal on a plate at the start of the second half as he lost the ball outside the area, allowing South African Benny McCarthy to finish at his leisure.
McCarthy then tapped in the fourth after 70 minutes to complete Juve's humiliation. Celta Vigo play RC Lens in the quarter-finals after the French side beat Atletico Madrid 4-2 in the second leg for a 6-4 aggregate win.
