Représente ta ligue: Not a Bad UEFA Cup Start for our Boys

By: Sam | September 20th, 2007

If you’re a France fan, it’s hard not to be a UEFA Cup fan. We rock at it, before the knockout round at least. If we could only be as good in the Champions League, we’d be set. Regardless, the lesser-cup fans were delighted today with the 38 matches being played from Russia to Scotland and everwhere in between. Side note: Spurs won 6-1! What!

With a hefty five French clubs involved (one through the League Cup, one through the French Cup, one through the table, one through Intertoto and one through the Champions League) there was much for me to do during math and Spanish at school today, two classes which by happy coincidence offered a computer with internet access.

Lens played yesterday in a feature early match, at home against FC København, for whom I have a soft spot because they have a Canadian (Atiba Hutchinson) among their ranks. And they would go for the throat early on, with Marcus Allbäck scoring five minutes in. Good thing Aruna Dindane was there to equalize for the Sang et Or, who now have a decent enough chance for the second leg, to be played on October 10 in Denmark.

However, the match I’m most psyched to tell you about is the one involving Tampere United and Bordeaux. Like in the above game, the bad guys struck within the first ten minutes, in this case through Jarko Wiss. Bordeaux equalized early in the second by Fernando Cavenaghi, but had that one-upped twenty minutes from time on a crazy strike from Tampere’s Tomi Petrescu. Doing everything but rolling over, Bordeaux waited until injury time to incredibly, score two goals, one from Johan Micoud, and a beaut from Cavenaghi again. And to think I stopped following it just before they scored.

But now the bad news: Sochaux, who qualified by winning last year’s Coupe de France, had yet to win going into their home leg against Panionios, and they still haven’t. One goal from Rafik Djebbour and another from Dario Fernandez sealed a clean domination from the Greeks, which brought about a jeer or two from the impatient home supporters.

That would be the only loss out of the five matches we care about. In Sofia, on a pitch hardly fit for 8-year olds, Rennes picked apart a physical Lokomotiv side to earn the advantage going into the second leg. Jérôme Leroy got a brace, and Benoît Cheyrou added one for the Bretons to top the Bulgarians.

Another Sofia side was taking on a French side, with Toulouse-CSKA taking place at the Stadium. A scoreless draw, with Nicolas Douchez making key stops to help his boys maintain a slim but plausible chance at taking the away leg in Bulgaria.