UEFA Intertoto Cup: Villans, Grasshoppers Among Winners; Rennes Take Marathon Shootout

Eight clubs saw their European campaigns continue as third-round play continued Saturday in the UEFA Intertoto Cup. All winners have now reached the second round of qualifying for the 2008-09 UEFA Cup,

SOUTHERN MEDITERRANEAN REGION:

At Sofia, Bulgaria:

Raul Bobadilla scored the only goal of the match to power Grasshoppers to a 1-0 road win in game two over Chernomorets Burgas. The Swiss club took their two-match set 4-0 on aggregate.

At Naples, Italy:

SSC Napoli picked up a second 1-0 win in their two-match set, this time at home against Greek club Panionios. For the Blues, Marek Harnsik score the game's only goal, in the second half, on the eve of his 21st birthday. Napoli won their series 2-0 on aggregate.

At Braga, Portugal:

Goals from Matheus, Roland Linz, and Luis Aguiar lifted Sporting Braga to an easy 3-0 home beatdown of Turkish club Sivasspor in game two. The Arsenalists took their two-match set rather easily, 5-0 on aggregate.

At La Coruna, Spain:

Juan Carlos Valeron scored the only goal of the match as Deportivo La Coruna defeated visiting Israeli club Bnei Sakhnin 1-0 and won their two-match set on aggregate, 3-1.

CENTRAL-EAST REGION:

At Vaslui, Romania:

FC Vaslui overturned their road defeat of last week with a 2-0 home win over Azerbaijani club PFC Neftchi Baku, enabling them to win their two-game series 3-2 on aggregate. Lucian Burdujan and Mike Temwanjera provided the scoring punch for the Golben-Verzii.

At Budapest, Hungary:

All the goals in this two-game set were scored in game two. In this one, second-half goals within a six-minute period from Daniel Beichler and Mario Haas enabled SK Sturm Graz to come from behind to defeat hosts Budapest Honved both in the match and in the series on aggregate 2-1.

At Simferopol, Ukraine:

After homestanding Tavriya Simferopol took game two at home 1-0 with Rennes to deadlock the two-game set 1-1 on aggregate to force what would be a scoreless additional 30 minutes, the two clubs engaged in a long penalty kick shootout, in which the French club won 10-9, enabling them to move on to the second round of qualifying for the UEFA Cup.

NORTHERN REGION:
Ashley Young scored the only goal (5') of game two, which lifted Aston Villa to a 1-0 road win over Odense Boldklub, enabling the Premiership Villans to win their two-game set 3-2 on aggregate.