I Efa, Uefa, We all Efa: France hates Europe or Europe hates France: You decide

By: Sam | March 17th, 2007

First legs of Lyon, Lille, Lens and PSG’s Champions League and UEFA Cup matches combined: Two wins, a draw, and a loss, four goals scored, three conceded. Against Roma, ManU, Bayer Leverkusen and Benfica respectively, that ain’t bad at all.
Second legs of Lyon, Lille, Lens and PSG’s Champions League and UEFA Cup matches combined: Zero wins, zero draws, and four losses, one goal scored, nine conceded. Against Roma, ManU, Bayer Leverkusen and Benfica respectively, that’s shite. Videos are below.

God, how depressing this is. Although Paris and Lens’ first leg successes were considered by some flukes, the no-shows presented in the second leg were something to be vomited upon.

Lens, 2-1 winners at home against Bayer Leverkusen, needed a draw, or a one-nil loss to progress. No such luck. Itandje was booked on ten minutes for delay of game, after which Barnetta hit the Lens post. In the 22nd, Monterrubio was close to finding net for Lens, and two minutes later, Barbarez almost headed in the first goal of the match. Two minutes after that, Bayer’s Kiebling had a goal disallowed for a foul on Tixier by Voronin. Lens were not looking good. Voronin would make up for that mishap on the half-hour mark however, controlling with the chest and sending a very tricky volley into Itandje’s far post. At that point, Lens were still on top. In the second half, with Tixier leaving the field for Dindane, Bayer went ahead on aggregate with Barbarez scoring in an almost empty net after the ball found his foot off the crossbar. At the hour mark, Itandje made a good save of Voronin that could’ve put the game away for good. Nothing doing ten minutes later, when Brazil international Juan headed the third into the net to put the score at 3-0. Three yellow cards in the last five minutes proved to be the most exciting thing there would be, and Lens went out of the UEFA Cup without anything to be happy about.

The other match, involving PSG, was at Lisbon to take on Benfica, after their 2-1 win in Paris the week before. Paris were looking strong early on, forcing a good save from Moretto off Pauleta, and with Gallardo’s shot skimming the post on five minutes. Simao got his second goal of the series twelve minutes later, slotting it through Landreau’s legs to make it look easy. PSG were still there on away goals. Just barely, because three minutes after the goal, Landreau’s post saved the day for PSG off Karagounis’ foot. Landreau then made a good save off Miccoli. A yellow for Katsouranis and a PSG shot that went just wide were just more things that made the first half of this game as crazy as it was. On 27 minutes, Petit spied Landreau off his line, and chipped an absolutely beautiful shot that the French keeper just about stopped. He didn’t, and it was Benfica’s turn to be in the lead. Five minutes later, Pauleta got his second of the series when he headed home a beautiful ball from Rothen. All tied up. A bunch of chances for both teams nearing the end of the first half proved to be in vain, and it was 2-1 at the half.

The second proved to be much more quiet, with much less opportunities. Benfica could have gone two-up on 71 minutes, but Landreau was there to cover up Miccoli’s shot. On 88 minutes, Mulumbu fouled Simao flagrantly in the box, to earn his second booking of the contest and a penalty to Benfica. The Portuguese international converted to give his club a 3-1 lead and a 4-3 lead on aggregate. That would be that, and PSG, all of a sudden were out of the competition.

Not that I wouldn’t have liked PSG to win the game, but with all rationality, it’s better this way. Let’s be honest, it’s not like they were going to win the UEFA Cup, and now they can focus on getting the hell out of the relegation zone.

Bayer Leverkusen 3-0 Lens