THE VULTURE swooped in Madrid last night, Emilio Butragueno helping Real Madrid to pick the carcass of Paris St Germain and ultimately earn a 3-1 win in their Uefa Cup quarter-final, first leg.
Goals from Butragueno and Ivan 'The Terrible' Zamorano within the space of four minutes gave Real a deserved 2-0 interval lead. David Ginola headed home in the 49th minute to halve the deficit, but Jose Miguel Gonzalez restored the home team's two- goal advantage in the last minute, following up to score after his penalty kick had been saved.
Roma, winners of the old Inter- Cities Fairs Cup in 1961, enhanced their prospects of lifting the Uefa Cup for the first time in Rome, taking a slender 1-0 lead over Germany's Borussia Dortmund in the first leg of their quarter-final despite being reduced to 10 men for the last 12 minutes of the match.
In a turgid match played in torrential rain, the decisive goal, a blistering diagonal effort from 20 yards, came in the 66th minute from Sinisa Mihajlovic, whose midfield colleague, Walter Bonacina, was subsequently sent off for a second bookable offence.
In the quarter-finals of the European Cup-Winners' Cup, Spartak Moscow also finished their tie one man short, but still surprised Feyenoord in Rotterdam, Andrei Piatnitsky profiting from a defensive misjudgement in the 37th minute to score the only goal as the home defence looked on, awaiting an offside decision that never came. Andrei Chernishov, the Spartak defender, was dismissed a minute from time for his second bookable offence.
Genoa have turned to their third coach of an unhappy Serie A season, replacing Gigi Maifredi with the youth team coach, Claudio Maselli, in the wake of turbulent crowd reaction following Sunday's 3-2 home defeat by a Lazio side reduced to 10 men by the sending-off of Paul Gascoigne.
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