Ajax eliminated from UEFA Cup

AMSTERDAM (AP)—Tyrone Mears scored in overtime, and Olympique Marseille advanced to the UEFA Cup quarterfinals with a 2-2 tie at Ajax Amsterdam on Wednesday night.

Marseille won the home-and-home, total-goal series on 4-3 aggregate and eliminating the four-time European Cup champions from the continent’s second-tier competition.

Eyong Enoh gave Ajax the lead in the 33rd minute, but Mamadou Niang tied it two minutes later. Miralem Sulejmani then put Ajax ahead 2-1 in the 74th minute, leaving the aggregate even.

Ajax finished a man short after Bruno Silva was ejected in the last minute of overtime for a foul on substitute Hatem Ben Arfa.

Werder Bremen also advanced, playing a 2-2 tie at Saint-Etienne to win on 3-2 aggregate.

Bremen, which beat AC Milan in the third round, opened a 2-0 lead when Sebastian Prodl scored on a header off Torsten Frings’ sixth-minute corner kick and Claudio Pizarro got his fifth European goal of the season in the 27th.

Saint-Etienne tied it on goals by Yohan Benalouane in the 64th and Sebastien Grax in injury time.

On Thursday, defending champion Zenit St. Petersburg tries to overturn a 2-0 deficit against visiting Udinese, 2005 champion CSKA Moscow is at Shakhtar Donetsk ahead 1-0, Dynamo Kiev is at Metalist Kharkiv leading 1-0, Manchester City is at Aalborg ahead 2-0, Hamburg is at 2000 champion Galatasaray tied 1-1 and Paris Saint-Germain is at Braga following a 0-0 tie.

The quarterfinal draws for the Champions League and UEFA Cup are Friday.

Label: Sport