Italians look for clean sweep

The UEFA Cup quarter-finals could have a distinctly Italian flavour with all three Serie A sides left in the competition well-placed to make it through to the fifth round.

Shock for Inter  
Internazionale FC recovered from the shock of going a goal behind at the San Siro to triumph 3-1 against AEK Athens in last week's first leg, with goals from Javier Zanetti, Mohamed Kallon and Nicola Ventola. Theodoros Zagorakis's seventh-minute volley at least provided AEK with an away goal to give them some of hope of overturning the deficit.

Milan on the move 
Inter's city rivals Milan AC were also victorious in their first leg. They ground out a 1-0 win at Roda JC thanks to Romero's strike and are hot favourites to complete the job at home tonight. Indeed, they warmed up for the match with a convincing 4-1 win at AC Venezia on Sunday.

Parma in pole
Serie A's third representatives, Parma AC, assumed pole position in their tie with Hapoel Tel-Aviv by securing a 0-0 draw in Israel. Despite the absence of injured captain Fabio Cannavaro, Parma will be confident of making home advantage count in tonight's return at the Ennio Tardini stadium.

Valencia in control
Along with the Italian clubs, Valencia CF must be among the UEFA Cup favourites, especially having already gained a 3-0 first-leg lead over Servette FC. Strikes from Pablo Aimar and Salva Ballesta as well as an unfortunate own goal by Servette's Hilton have left the Swiss club with a mountain to climb at the Charmilles stadium.

Double Dutch
An all-Dutch quarter-final between Feyenoord and PSV Eindhoven is also still on the cards after the pair's first-leg results against British opponents. Shinji Ono's 72nd-minute strike at Ibrox gave Feyenoord the lead and a precious away goal against Rangers FC only for Barry Ferguson's late penalty to leave the tie delicately poised at 1-1.

In the balance
Similarly, PSV's tie with Leeds United AFC remains in the balance after a goalless draw at the Philips stadium. The visitors should be in good spirits for the trip to Elland Road after thrashing FC Utrecht 4-0 on Sunday. The same afternoon Leeds could only muster a 0-0 draw at home to Charlton Athletic FC. Midfield player Olivier Dacourt picked up an injury in that game and could miss out tonight.

Ground switch
FC Slovan Liberec, who have already dumped RC Celta de Vigo and RCD Mallorca out of this season's competition, secured a 1-1 draw at Olympique Lyonnais, who started the season in the UEFA Champions League. Jirí Štajner's 14th-minute penalty gave Slovan a shock lead, but substitute Sidney Govou spared the home side's blushes. Tonight's return has been switched to the Letná stadium in Prague due to heavy rain in Liberec.

Lille level
Lyon's French rivals Lille OSC also earned a home 1-1 draw last week. Their opponents, BV Borussia Dortmund, have since been thrashed 4-0 by Bayer 04 Leverkusen in the 1. Bundesliga - their first defeat since October 2001. Salaheddine Bassir's 72nd-minute goal for LOSC cancelled out Ewerthon's strike five minutes earlier for the German side.