Maccarone snatches miracle victory for Boro

Middlesbrough 4 Basel 1 (Agg: 4-3)

The Teessiders’ cause looked lost when Brazilian striker Eduardo made the aggregate score 3-0 with 23 minutes gone, but on a tension-packed night, Steve McClaren’s men showed true grit to overcome near-impossible odds.

Basle, who had seen defender Daniel Majstorovic sent off for a second bookable offence with 17 minutes remaining, had literally seconds of normal time and three minutes of added time to negotiate to go through on the away goals rule after a Mark Viduka double and a third from substitute Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink had dragged Boro right back into the tie.

But Maccarone snatched victory at the death, firing home after keeper Pascal Zuberbuhler had parried Fabio Rochemback’s shot to book a semi-final showdown with Steaua Bucharest.

“If we pull it off, it will be arguably the greatest night in the Riverside’s history and one that will be talked about for generations to come,” McClaren wrote in his programme notes, and his words were to prove gloriously prophetic.

And as the home fans grew increasingly nervous, the inevitable happened.

Mladen Petric’s deep free-kick was perfectly-weighted for Boris Smiljanic to head back across goal and Eduardo smashed it home to leave the Swiss side agonisingly close to killing off the tie.

But the Teessiders grabbed a lifeline 12 minutes before the break when Yakubu slid the ball into Viduka’s run and he blasted his 13th goal of the season past Zuberbuhler to level on the night.

McClaren replaced winger James Morrison with Hasselbaink at half-time as Boro went for broke. Parnaby saw a 50th-minute shot blocked by Papa Malick Ba and Hasselbaink forced another good save from Zuberbuhler a minute later as Basle held on.

The keeper was beaten for a second time in the 57th minute as Viduka collected Yakubu’s pass and rounded him to slot home.

Basle could simply not force their way out of their own half as the Teessiders, driven on by George Boateng from the middle of the field, hammered away at them.

There were 17 minutes remaining when Majstorovic, who had earlier been booked for a foul on Yakubu, raised a hand to Boateng and was yellow-carded for a second time.

Rochemback and Hasselbaink forced saves from Zuberbuhler in quick succession, but there was nothing the keeper could do when the Dutchman let fly from 25 yards with 11 minutes remaining to level the aggregate scores and set up a grandstand finish.

The drama continued right to the last when, after the keeper had turned away Rochemback’s stinging drive, Maccarone fired home the rebound to spark delirious celebrations among a crowd of 24,521.

MIDDLESBROUGH: Schwarzer, Parnaby, Riggott, Southgate, Queudrue (Maccarone 67), Morrison (Hasselbaink 45), Boateng, Rochemback (Taylor 90), Downing, Viduka, Yakubu.

BASLE: Zuberbuhler, Zanni, Majstorovic, Smiljanic, Berner, Degen (Chipperfield 61), Delgado (Ergic 70), Ba, Petric, Sterjovski (Quennoz 85), Eduardo Da Silva.

Referee: Igor Zakharov (Moscow),

Last night’s results: UEFA Cup quarter-final second-leg: Zenit St Petersburg 1 Seville 1 (agg 2-5), Steaua Bucharest 0 Rapid Bucharest 0 (agg 1-1 Steaua win on away goals), Schalke 1 Levski Sofia 1 (agg 4-2).