Manchester City vs Juventus Highlights: UEFA Cup

Manchester City survived a late scare to collect a valuable point from a 1-1 draw in their high-profile Europa League clash with Juventus. Roberto Mancini’s men had run out of attacking ideas themselves when veteran forward Alessandro Del Piero strode up to fire a free-kick off the underside of Joe Hart’s crossbar.

Del Piero claimed the ball bounced in, but the merits of a goal-line assistant were plain to see as the official correctly ruled it had come down straight outside the goal-line.

It ensured parity for City against the team Mancini used to support as a six-year-old after Adam Johnson had levelled Vincenzo Iaquinta’s early opener before the break. City did not really deserve any more and Emmanuel Adebayor was particularly poor.

However, if they can come out with a win in back-to-back meetings with Polish champions Lech Poznan which now follow, the Blues should advance to the knock-out phase without too much trouble.

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FC Utrecht vs Liverpool Highlights: Europa League

Liverpool escaped with a point in a goalless draw in their Europa League Group K clash in Utrecht after another disjointed and disappointing performance. Without their inspirational skipper Steven Gerrard, left behind to rest on Merseyside, the Reds looked devoid of ideas and even the presence of out of form Fernando Torres for his first Europa League start of the campaign did not help.

A point in the Stadion Galgenwaard, where the hosts had won their previous six matches, was no less feat but it was hardly one of those classic, gritty away performances in Europe.

Roy Hodgson’s side, who had five successive Europa League victories prior to this game, were dominated for long periods and their clean sheet should be credited to goalkeeper Jose Reina and a goalline clearance from Raul Meireles.

Liverpool have now gone four matches without a victory in all competitions and Hodgson’s blueprint for reinforcing the team after Rafael Benitez’s shock departure in the summer still looks very much like a work in progress.

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Udinese vs Werder Bremen Highlights

Brazilian Diego scored twice in an entertaining 3-3 draw at Udinese to send Werder Bremen into the UEFA Cup semi-finals with a 6-4 aggregate victory on Thursday.

Werder meet fellow German side Hamburg SV in the last four but were fortunate at times against a determined Udinese, who were the last Italian side in European competition. But Udinese were to blame their sloppy defending which allowed Werder to score and come back into the game.

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Marseille vs Shakhtar Donetsk Highlights: UEFA Cup

Shakhtar Donetsk set up an all-Ukrainian UEFA Cup semi-final clash against Dynamo Kiev by securing a smash and grab 2-1 triumph over Marseille at the Stade Velodrome to round off a 4-1 aggregate victory.

Shakhtar built on their 2-0 home win in last week’s quarter-final first leg by going taking the lead on the half-hour mark through Fernandinho.

Needing to score four goals without reply, OM pulled one back when Hatem Ben Arfa slammed home two minutes before half-time but that was all they could manage.

After soaking up lots of pressure, Shakhtar broke forward three minutes into second-half injury time and Luiz Adriano finished with aplomb to seal victory on the night.

Dynamo, 15 points clear of Shakhtar at the summit of the Ukrainian top flight, are next stop for Mircea Lucescu’s men, while Marseille  the new leaders in France’s Ligue 1 – are left to concentrate on winning their first domestic title since 1992.

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