Villa humbled on bad night for UEFA Cup minnows

Aston Villa were the big losers in the UEFA Cup on Thursday as Europe's heavyweight teams otherwise made their presence felt in their first round, second leg matches.

The English side, who sweated through the Intertoto Cup to qualify for the tournament, won 1-0 at Varteks in Croatia but went out on the away goals rule following their 3-2 home defeat in the first leg.

Italian teams AC Milan, Inter Milan, Parma and Fiorentina all progressed but Scottish club Rangers left it late before winning their one-off match with Anji Makhachkala in Warsaw 1-0.

Ipswich Town advanced after winning impressively at Torpedo Moscow and they were joined in round two by English premier league leaders Leeds United and Chelsea.

Villa manager John Gregory fielded French winger David Ginola from the start in Croatia but his side struggled to break down an ultra-defensive Varteks team.

The game was in stoppage time when Mustapha Hadji drove home a spectacular winner from the edge of the penalty area and it proved too little too late for the visitors.

Bert Konterman settled Rangers' one-off first round clash against Anji.

The Dutch defender drove in a deflected freekick with six minutes left to decide the tie which UEFA had ordered to be played as one match at a neutral venue.

Rangers had refused to travel to Dagestan, which is close to troubled Chechnya, for the first leg due to security fears.

"At home we could have won this match with 20,000 fans on our side," said Anji coach Alexander Markarov afterwards.

Nicola Ventola scored twice as Inter Milan eased into the second round with 3-0 win at Romanian side Brasov, going through 6-0 overall.

Ronaldo Hurt
Inter's Brazilian striker Ronaldo, on the comeback trail after a long-term knee injury, played 40 minutes as a substitute and suffered what Inter later called "a light strain" to his right thigh.

In-form AC Milan rested several players but still proved far too strong for Belarussian team BATE Borisov at the San Siro.

Rui Costa, Javier Moreno, Mohammed Sarr and Filippo Inzaghi were on target in a 4-0 success which gave them a 6-0 win overall.

Leeds trailed by 1-0 from the first leg in Madeira but Maritimo provided little real resistance at Elland Road in the return.

First-half goals by Robbie Keane and Harry Kewell put David O'Leary's side in control and Eirik Bakke rounded off a comfortable night's work.

Second-half goals by Finidi George and Marcus Stewart gave Ipswich Town, back in European competition for the first time in 19 years, a 2-1 win at Torpedo Moscow for a 3-2 aggregate victory.

Dmitry Vyazmikin, the Russian premier league's top scorer, pulled one back for Torpedo but was guilty of a horrendous early miss with the score at 0-0 when he sidefooted the ball on to the bar in front of an open goal after 20 minutes.

First-half goals by John Terry and Eidur Gudjohnsen helped Chelsea cruise to a 2-0 win in Bulgaria against Levski Sofia. The English side progressed 5-0 on aggregate.

Late efforts by Marco Marchionni and Emiliano Bonazzoli gave Parma a 2-0 win at HJK Helsinki. They went through 3-0 on aggregate.

Enrico Chiesa scored the decisive goal in Fiorentina's 2-1 home victory over Ukrainian side Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk after their goalless first leg.

Sensational Rapid
Lothar Matthaeus's Rapid Vienna side thumped Partizan Belgrade 5-1 in Austria to overturn a 1-0 first-leg deficit.

"This is a sensational win," said the former Germany captain.

Last year's Champions League finalists Valencia also made light work of Russian side Chernomorets Novorossiisk.

Juan Sanchez netted twice in a 5-0 home win which gave then a 6-0 aggregate passage.

Club Bruges of Belgium hit seven past Olympiakos Nicosia of Cyprus, with Rune Lange scoring twice in a 7-1 victory which gave them a 9-3 success over the two legs.

Ajax Amsterdam were also untroubled by Cypriot opponents, winning 3-0 at Apollon Limassol, 5-0 on aggregate.

Legia Warsaw completed a 10-2 aggregate victory over Elfsborg of Sweden with a crushing 6-1 away win in the second leg.