2005: French fliers lead the way
Monday 1 August 2005
e-mail
Print
Digg
Save
Vitorino Hilton celebrates scoring for Lens against CFR Cluj (©Getty Images)
Former UEFA Champion Clubs' Cup winners Hamburger SV and Olympique de Marseille added their names to the list of UEFA Intertoto Cup winners in 2005, while RC Lens got their centenary celebrations off to the best possible start by completing the trio of victors as France continued their domination of the summer tournament.
Lens triumph
Lens's final victory against CFR Cluj was hard on the Romanian side. Unlike the other five finalists, Dorniel Munteanu's team had entered the competition in the first round, and having already surprised Athletic Club Bilbao and AS Saint-Etienne, looked capable of pulling off another upset against Lens in the final. Cluj held the Ligue 1 side to a 1-1 draw in the first leg, but Lens hit back at a packed Stade Félix-Bollaert, goals from Vitorino Hilton, Adama Coulibaly and Daniel Cousin adding Cluj to the list of vanquished that already included Lech Poznan, NK Varteks and VfL Wolfsburg.
'Magic moments'
Fifty-thousand crammed into the Stade Vélodrome to see Marseille win their final against RC Deportivo La Coruña. Marseille had knocked five goals past BSC Young Boys and a further four past S.S. Lazio to reach the final, where they overturned a 2-0 first-leg deficit to defeat Deportivo 5-3 on aggregate. In a heated second leg Franck Ribéry and Aldo Duscher were both sent off early on and Deportivo finished with nine men after Joan Capdevila was also dismissed with 20 minutes to play and his side trailing 2-1. That set the scene for a thrilling finale with late goals from Mamadou Niang and Wilson Oruma finally tipping the balance Marseille's way. Fighting back the tears, Marseille coach Jean Fernandez said: "I told the players that anything can happen at the Vélodrome - this stadium is, at times, lifted by magic moments."
Barbarez winner
Hamburg had defeated FK Pobeda, UD Leiria and SK Sigma Olomouc to reach their final and there was to be no let up against Valencia CF as Thomas Doll's side upset the Spanish favourites. Serjez Barbarez got the only goal of the tie as Hamburg secured a 1-0 aggregate victory, the Bosnia-Herzegovnian heading in a Rafael van der Vaart cross 51 minutes into the first leg to give the Bundesliga side a lead they would not relinquish.
©uefa.com 1998-2009. All rights reserved.
