Five-star Valencia cruise through
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Your support makes all the difference.The double European Cup finalists Valencia emphasised their experience with a 5-0 humbling of the Russian side Chernomorets in the first round of the Uefa Cup. Two goals by Juan Sanchez helped Valencia gain a 6-0 win over the two legs.
The Italian sides Milan, Internazionale, Parma and Fiorentina also progressed. Nicola Ventola scored twice as Inter eased into the second round with 3-0 win at the Romanian side Brasov, going through 6-0 overall. Inter's Brazilian striker Ronaldo, on the comeback trail after a long-term knee injury, played 40 minutes as a substitute and suffered what Inter later called "a light strain" to his right thigh.
In-form Milan rested several players but still proved far too strong for the Belarussian team Bate Borisov at the San Siro. Rui Costa, Javier Moreno, Mohammed Sarr and Filippo Inzaghi were on target in a 4-0 success which also gave them a 6-0 win overall.
Late efforts by Marco Marchionni and Emiliano Bonazzoli gave Parma a 2-0 win at Finland's HJK Helsinki. They went through 3-0 on aggregate. Enrico Chiesa scored the decisive goal in Fiorentina's 2-1 home victory over the Ukrainian side Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk after their goalless first leg.
Lothar Matthäus's Rapid Vienna thumped Partizan Belgrade 5-1 in Austria to overturn a 1-0 first-leg deficit. Legia Warsaw completed a 10-2 aggregate victory over Elfsborg of Sweden with a 6-1 away win in the second leg.
Paris St-Germain's place in the Uefa Cup second round was confirmed yesterday by the game's European ruling body following the abandonment of their first round second-leg against Rapid Bucharest on Tuesday due to floodlight failure. Uefa decided that the Romanians were to blame for the black-out and awarded the match to the French side 3-0.
PSG were leading 1-0 in the match and 1-0 on aggregate after Aloisio scored in extra-time. But with seven minutes remaining the ground was plunged into darkness and the match was abandoned when the problem could not be fixed.
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