High drama on 'perfect night'

Collective endeavour
The Primera División side led 2-0 from the first leg, only to be outfoxed in the Romanian capital by Walter Zenga's determined team. Zenga, who was ordered by Steaua owner Gigi Becali to play Andrei Cristea from the start, saw the 20-year-old score twice to set up extra time and penalties, on which Steaua triumped 4-3. Zenga, though, was keen to praise his side's collective endeavour.

'Perfect night'
"I don't want to say that one player or another player played well, because it was simply a perfect night, a perfect match played by us," said the Italian. "I'm proud, we're happy, but life goes on. The Romanian season starts next week then comes the match against Villarreal [CF]." Villarreal were also 2-0 winners, on the night and on aggregate, against FC Dynamo Kyiv. Coach Manuel Pellegrini said: "We're happy because the team is continuing on the right road."

Impressive character
One place above Villarreal in the Spanish top flight are Sevilla FC, 2-1 aggregate conquerors of Panathinaikos FC. "To achieve things in life one must suffer," said coach Joaquín Caparrós. "It was do or die late on and we had to change things." The Andalusians will now play Parma FC, who needed extra time to see off VfB Stuttgart. "We deserved to win," said coach Pietro Carmignani.

Sentiments echoed
Middlesbrough FC manager Steve McClaren echoed those sentiments after his side recovered from conceding early against Grazer AK to advance to a tie with Sporting Clube de Portugal. "I said before the game if we scored two tonight we'd win and so it proved," he said. "The UEFA Cup gets serious now." Sporting defeated Feyenoord 2-1 in both legs. "We were well prepared and controlled the match from the beginning," said assistant coach Eduardinho of the victory in Rotterdam.

'Well prepared'
Graeme Souness said "winning in the first leg gave us a great advantage" after Newcastle United FC eliminated SC Heerenveen, while last-16 opponents Olympiacos CFP also won both legs against FC Sochaux-Montbéliard. "They had lots of chances in the first half and we were under fire before we settled," was coach Dušan Bajevic's assessment.

French tie
Two Ligue 1 challengers remain, however, and will meet for a place in the quarter-finals. Guy Roux, whose AJ Auxerre side needed an 86th-minute goal to see off AFC Ajax, is looking forward to tackling LOSC Lille Métropole, 2-0 aggregate victors against FC Basel 1893. "Our qualification was no miracle," he said. "I think the more French sides we have in the UEFA Cup the better." Lille's Claude Puel added: "We wanted to nullify their attacking potential and also avoid giving away free-kicks so they couldn't profit from them."

'Intelligent display'
Valeriy Gazzaev said his PFC CSKA Moskva side "did a wonderful job" at the Estádio da Luz to eliminate SL Benfica, doing everything "almost perfectly". Next up are FK Partizan after they ended FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk's involvement. Another Ukrainian side, FK Shakhtar Donetsk, remain in contention as a result of defeating FC Schalke 04. "It was an excellent result for us following an intelligent display," said coach Mircea Lucescu.

Compliments
Shakhtar face AZ Alkmaar in the last 16. The Dutch side's coach, Co Adriaanse, said the 2-1 win against TSV Alemannia Aachen was "a fantastic match which had everything", adding: "My compliments to Aachen, who play enterprising football." Compliments too to Real Zaragoza, who eliminated Fenerbahçe SK. They will learn their opponents on Sunday when compatriots Athletic Club Bilbao finish their tie against FK Austria Wien. They drew their first leg 0-0 last night.