ForeverInLoveWithJus

Is he any relation to Ricardo lol. Thats what I thought of first lol. But anyway Well done to CKSA! Bonera was sent off in the 90th minute as well.

Though Parmas keeper Bucci was injured by a flare

DrTagnian

AZ 3-2 Sporting Lisbon
On paper, AZ had a tougher task beating Sporting than PSV's task to beat Milan Wednesday night. But in the first 10 minutes AZ showed they wanted to travel to Portugal ... again! The match was very exciting for the Dutch/AZ supporters, 'cause Sporting wasn't going to give it up. Thanks to Perez, Huysegems and Jaliens, AZ were 3-1 up in the extra time. Unfortunately things changed ...

Holland has had a penalty syndrome for a pretty long time. EC92, EC96, WC98, EC00. Now it seems we're stuck with an injury time syndrome. Sporting's Michel Garcia scored in the 121st (!) minute. Players were sad and all in tears.

There's lighting in the darkness though. Louis van Gaal will take over Adriaanse's job in the new season. And what to think of defender Ron Vlaar. Trust me when I say that he's going to be the new Jaap Stam for the Dutch National team!

Sometimes you advance when you deserve to lose. And other times you lose when you played amazing Football and deserved to play the Final or even win the cup. Life's not fair. Football's not fair. But isn't that why we love football?

And then the fairytale ended ...

I wouldn't be so sure that Moscow advances to the Final. I suppose you haven't seen the first half hour? Parma's goalkeeper had to be substituted, because of a firework incident. To be continued.

ForeverInLoveWithJus

Poor AZ, I thought they would have won that, Its great for Dutch football with AZ and PSV doing so well in the European football competitions.

PastyHusty

Poor AZ.. They played so well last night, as did Sporting.

I watched some of the match, including all of extra-time. From a neutral point of view it was very entertaining stuff, but for the fans it looked like hell! Both teams were playing well, but yet the game was very open. Each team had plenty of chances to take the lead, but great saves and last ditch tackles saved the day often. Timmer should have cleared the ball towards either corner flag instead of booting it down the middle of the pitch.. then Sporting would have had a harder time mounting one final attack. I can only begin to imagine what the AZ fans must have felt like when Sporting scored in extra-time overtime, but I do know I'm thankful that no Czech national players were in the AZ side!

Hopefully AZ can continue to do well in Europe next season.

ForeverInLoveWithJus

I didnt get to see any of that match, just kept up to date via teletext.

DrTagnian

More news around both Semi-Finals ...

There seems to be in the official UEFA rules that it isn't allowed to give injury time during extra time. It's 2x15 minutes extra time and not more. But what can you do about it?

And the UEFA will have a good look on the firework incident in Moscow. May 8th we'll know whether CSKA Moscow will play the Final and be the (possible) first Russian club to win a Europa Cup.

ForeverInLoveWithJus

I wonder what will happen. Could be Moscow out.

DrTagnian

Parma protest rejected
The UEFA has decided CSKA Moscow are allowed to play the Final. They're ordered to play their next two home UEFA club competition fixtures behind closed doors, with one of these two matches deferred for a two-year probationary period. Furthermore they have to pay an amount of €65.000.

Source: www.uefa.com

EDIT: Uhm ... this should be in the UEFA Cup thread ofcourse. Neil, can you put it there?

PastyHusty

Moved as requested.

Even though I don't agree with violence, I'd much prefer to have CSKA Moscow in the Final instead of Parma. I don't want to see a boring 0-0 draw!

ForeverInLoveWithJus

I think that CKSA deserve it, okay the violence was terrible but they deserve it overall.