Padovano puts Juventus in last four

Michele Padovano sent Juventus through to the semi-finals of the European Cup last night with a second-half goal that gave the Italians a 2-0 victory on the night, and a 2-1 aggregate win over Real Madrid.

The Spanish champions had outclassed the Italians in the first leg in Madrid, despite a slender 1-0 win, but Juventus came good in their packed Delle Alpi stadium with a goal in each half to reach the last four for the sixth time in their history. Both sides finished an unruly game with 10 men: Real's Rafael Alkorta and the home side's Moreno Torricelli were sent off in the second half.

The Italian international, Alessandro Del Piero, opened the scoring in the 16th minute from a free-kick on the edge of the area and Padovano, replacing the suspended Fabrizio Ravanelli, provided the winner in the 55th minute.

Nicolas Ouedec scored two opportunist second-half goals to give Nantes a 2-2 draw with Spartak Moscow in their second-leg tie and see them through to the last four, 4-2 on aggregate. Ouedec wiped out two outstanding first- half goals by the Spartak captain, Yuri Nikiforov. The Greek side, Panathinaikos, also reached the last four by overcoming Legia Warsaw.