Munteanu strike leaves holders on brink of early elimination

CSKA Moscow’s UEFA Cup defence is hanging by a thread after they lost 1-0 at Dinamo Bucharest last night.

Vlad Munteanu’s second-half strike was enough to appease Dinamo’s demanding supporters, 100 of whom had confronted players at the club’s training ground following poor recent results.

The win sees them leapfrog the holders, who have played all their Group F games and are relying on Dinamo losing their final match in a fortnight and rock-bottom Heerenveen also failing to win.

At the other end of the group, Levski Sofia secured qualification as Hristo Yovov’s second half strike earned them a 1-0 UEFA Cup win over Marseille, whom they join at the top of the table.

In Group E, Red Star Belgrade came from behind to rescue their European campaign and leave Roma’s progress in the balance.

Shabani Nonda had given the visitors the lead but Nikola Zigic deservedly hit back before half-time before Milan Purovic netted and Zigic bagged his second to seal a 3-1 win.

There was still time for Antonio Cassano to miss a penalty for injury-hit Roma, for whom a draw would have been enough to ensure their progress.

In the same group, Basle produced an astonishing comeback to put themselves within sight of a place in the last 32 and eliminate Tromso.

It had looked an unlikely scenario at the interval with Tromso looking good with a 3-1 lead after two goals from Lars Ivar Strand and one from Ole Martin Aarst. Mladen Petric had scored Basle’s goal but in the second half, strikes from Matias Delgado, Scott Chipperfield and David Degen won it 4-3 for the Swiss side.

Sevilla are through in Group H after a comfortable 3-1 win over Guimaraes at the Estadio Sanchez Pizjuan.

All the goals came in the first halfas on-loan Argentinian forwardJavier Saviola struck twice before Claro Adriano Correia added athird.

Salim Benachour then got Guimaraes back in the game moments before half-time.

In the group’s other game, Zenit St Petersburg survived a first-half onslaught to grab a 1-1 draw at Besiktas and leave the Turkish side facing elimination from the tournament.

Last night’s results mean Bolton need a point from their final match - against Sevilla - to qualify from the group stages.

Group G saw Rennes dumped out of the competition as they went down to a third consecutive defeat, 1-0 at the hands of Shakhtar Donetsk, but Rapid Bucharest are through after beating PAOK Salonika by the same score thanks to Marius Maldarasanu’s free-kick.