Cocu crushes Leeds

PSV Eindhoven 3 Leeds United 0 (PSV win 8-3 on aggregate)

PSV Eindhoven secured a place in the last 16 of the Uefa Cup last night with a comfortable 3-0 victory over Leeds United.

The PSV striker Philip Cocu scored twice, but was taken off on a stretcher late in the game after an aerial clash with the raised elbow of the Leeds striker Tony Yeboah.

Leeds, trailing by two goals after the first leg of their second-round tie, were dealt a body blow after 13 minutes when PSV increased their advantage. Cocu delighted the Dutch crowd by putting them ahead after a free-kick by Wim Jonk had been flicked on by Luc Nilis.

The goal gave Leeds, 5-3 losers at Elland Road two weeks ago, a mountain to climb. They had, however, started the game in lively fashion with the PSV goalkeeper, Ronald Waterreus, leaping superbly to tip away a powerful header from Carlton Palmer after Gary McAllister and Gary Speed had been involved in the build-up.

With PSV dominating, their Brazilian striker, Ronaldo, almost made it 2-0 minutes later, but his shot rolled inches wide.

Leeds suffered another blow two minutes before half-time after Nilis had caused confusion in defence between the leeds goalkeeper, John Lukic, and centre-half John Pemberton.

As Lukic came out to try and thwart the Belgian international, Pemberton lofted the ball over his goalkeeper's head into an empty net. That second goal left Leeds trailing 7-3 on aggregate going into the second half.

Leeds nearly conceded a third goal seven minutes after half-time, when Marciano Vink broke away after being set up by Jonk, but his shot was off target, much to the visitors' relief. Ronaldo then had a goal disallowed after he was adjudged to have pulled Lukic to the ground.

An alert Paul Beesley knocked on a ball from Gary Kelly, but Yeboah could not get any power on his delivery. Kelly then carelessly lost possession and Cocu raced on, only to knock the ball well wide of the post. However, in the 74th minute, Cocu rounded Lukic to slide the ball into an empty net to make the score 3-0.

PSV Eindhoven: Waterreus; Prommayon, Faber, Valckx, Numan, Linskens, Vink, Jonk, Ronaldo, Nilis, Cocu. Substitutes used: Van Der Leegte, Hoekstra, Pahlplatz.

Leeds United: Lukic; Kelly, Beesley, Palmer, Pemberton, Wetherall, Bowman, Yeboah, Whelan, McAllister, Speed. Substitutes used: White, Sharp, Ford.

Referee: M Batta (Fr).