Hearts broken by away goal

European Round-Up Rupert Metcalf
Thursday 22 August 1996 23:02 BST
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Heart of Midlothian's hopes of reaching the first round of the Cup-Winners' Cup were dashed by Red Star Belgrade last night. The Edinburgh side had done well to force a 0-0 draw in Serbia two weeks ago, but a 1-1 draw at Tynecastle meant that Red Star won this qualifying round tie on the away-goals rule.

Hearts took the lead on the stroke of half-time when Dave McPherson headed in a Gary Mackay corner, but Red Star grabbed their goal with a Vinko Marinovic header, also from a corner, in the 59th minute.

Llansantffraid, the team from a tiny Welsh village, were introduced to European football reality yesterday when they were thrashed 5-0 by the Polish side, Ruch Chorzow, in another Cup-Winners' Cup tie.

The League of Wales team had dreamed of an upset after a 1-1 draw at Wrexham a fortnight ago in the first leg, but Arkadiusz Bak put the Poles ahead after just 30 seconds.

Chorzow did not score again until early in the second half, when Arwel Jones sliced a cross into his own net. The Poles added three more goals - one by Arkadiusz Bak and two by Miroslav Bak - to complete a 6-1 aggregate win, and Llansantffraid were denied a consolation goal 10 minutes from time when Andy Edwards, a milkman, lost his bottle from the penalty spot and had his spot-kick saved.

Manchester United will learn their European Champions' League opponents today, when the draw for the group stage of the European Cup is made in Geneva. United, one of the top eight seeds, may meet Rangers. The other seeded team in United's group will be either Milan, Juventus, Atletico Madrid or Auxerre - but they cannot be drawn in the same group as Ajax, Borussia Dortmund or Porto.

England have been allocated an extra place in next season's Uefa Cup - thanks to their sporting conduct on and off the pitch. England came second to Norway in Uefa's annual Fair Play rankings and will be allowed to enter four clubs in next season's competition.

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