Brilliant Boro blitz Belgrade

Middlesbrough 3 Partizan Belgrade 0

“Stand-in” strikers Szilard Nemeth and Joseph-Desire Job finally ended their long goal droughts to guarantee Boro top spot in Group E, and with it a third-round tie against one of the other seven third-placed teams from the group stages.

Nemeth and Job scored first-half goals at the Riverside to vindicate Boro manager Steve McClaren’s decision to bench first-choice duo Mark Viduka and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, before youngster James Morrison applied a coup-de-grace finish.

After Ray Parlour had been booked inside five minutes for a sliding challenge on Albert Nadj, despite initially winning the ball, Boro set about their task with typical efficiency and took the lead in the 10th minute. A swift, incisive move culminated in Job’s through ball for Nemeth who, after beating the offside trap, then delivered a straightforward shot Ivica Kralj should have held.

But Kralj - along with Nadj, captain Sasa Ilic and Nenad Djordjevic the four survivors from Partizan’s Champions League qualifying defeat of Newcastle last season - was left red-faced as the ball squirmed through his grasp and over the line.

Unsurprisingly, facing a 2-0 hurdle, Partizan woke from their apparent slumber, only to find Boro as adept in defence as they had previously been in attack.

Mark Schwarzer first clawed in a low Ciric shot before Holland international Michael Reiziger superbly blocked an Ivan Tomic drive at point-blank range just when it appeared he had worked an opening.

The ever-reliable Stewart Downing, who Partizan coach Vladimir Vermezovic claimed he had never heard of before the game, then worked his magic down the left.

After Partizan had failed to clear one Downing cross, Nemeth sliced a headed through ball from Job with the goal at his mercy, before the Slovakian sidefooted over another pin-point delivery from the potential England star soon after. Scares followed for Boro, with Ilic drilling wide from 12 yards and Nadj blazing over from a similar distance.

Instead, it was Boro who finished the game in style, though, with substitute Morrison curling home a superb 20-yard left-foot shot after jinking his way past three Partizan defenders.

There was still time for a remarkable run from Vukcevic, only to be denied by the post.

MIDDLESBROUGH: Schwarzer, Reiziger, Cooper, Southgate, Queudrue, Parlour (Morrison 64.00), Doriva, Zenden, Downing, Nemeth, Job.

PARTIZAN BELGRADE: Kralj (Pantic 40.00), Mirkovic, Nenad Brnovic, Boya, Ciric (Vukcevic 46.00), Djordjevic, Emeghara, Tomic, Ilic (Grubjesic 70.00), Rnic, Nadj.

Referee: Grzegorz Gilewski (Poland).