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February 19, 2011

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Home » Sports » Soccer

Porto, Benfica grab late wins

Substitute Fredy Guarin gave former European champion Porto a late 2-1 Europa League win at Sevilla on Thursday while its old rival Benfica beat VfB Stuttgart by the same score.

Russian champion Zenit St Petersburg, which won all its group stage games, lost 1-2 to a stoppage time goal at Young Boys in another round of 32 first leg tie.

However, its compatriot Spartak Moscow was on the right end of a comeback away to another Swiss opponent as it bounced back from 0-2 down to win 3-2 at FC Basel.

Ajax Amsterdam won 3-0 at Belgium's Anderlecht while fellow Dutch side Twente Enschede was among several teams who endured freezing conditions in eastern Europe, beating Rubin Kazan 2-0 in Moscow where the temperature hovered around minus 15 Celsius.

Peguy Luyindula scored an 89th-minute equalizer to give Paris St Germain a 2-2 draw at BATE Borisov in Minsk, another match played in temperatures well below freezing.

Bayer Leverkusen also had to contend with bitter conditions in Ukraine as it thumped Metalist Kharkiv 4-0.

Metalist's compatriot Dynamo Kiev enjoyed contrasting fortune as it won 4-1 at Turkey's Besiktas with former AC Milan and Chelsea striker Andriy Shevchenko among the scorers.

Liverpool failed to find the target as it drew 0-0 at Sparta Prague. "It wasn't a classic," Kenny Dalglish told Britain's Channel Five television after managing Liverpool in Europe for the first time.

"The onus was on them to try to put us under a wee bit of pressure. We made a couple of opportunities as well. On the night, 0-0, fair enough. I'm happy with that."

Lille was held 2-2 at home after a late rally by PSV Eindhoven in a meeting of the French and Dutch league leaders.

Porto, beaten only once in 34 outings in the Portuguese league and Cup and Europa League this season, went ahead in the 58th when Rolando stabbed home after a free kick. Sevilla striker Frederic Kanoute leveled in the 65th, also from a free kick, before Colombia midfielder Guarin stole the win with five minutes left as Porto made a happy return to the scene of its 2003 UEFA Cup final win over Celtic.

Stuttgart's impressive European form has been in marked contrast to its shaky Bundesliga performances this season and Martin Harnik gave it a first-half lead in Lisbon.

But Benfica hit back as Paraguay striker Oscar Cardozo, one of eight South Americans in the team, equalized in the 70th and Argentine Franco Jara got the winner with nine minutes left.



 

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