19 February 2007, by Sean Gillen

   Portuguese abroad weekly roundup

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England - FA Cup

Chelsea cruise

Chelsea coasted into the quarter finals of the FA Cup with a 4-0 win over Norwich at Stamford Bridge. Ricardo Carvalho was rested for the match but Paulo Ferreira started as goals from Shaun Wright-Phillips, Didier Drogba, Michael Essien and Andrei Shevchenko saw the Blues through.

Manchester United were forced to add another fixture to their already busy schedule after Reading earned a replay at Old Trafford. Cristiano Ronaldo was guilty of a costly miss as the Royals came from behind to draw 1-1 and set up a reverse meeting on Tuesday 27th February.

Abel Xavier played the full ninety minutes at right-back as Middlesbrough were held to a 2-2 draw by West Bromwich Albion at the Riverside to set up a replay. Ricardo Rocha was on the bench as Tottenham breezed past Fulham with a 4-0 away victory.

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France - Ligue 1

PSG continue recovery

Paris Saint-Germain made it back to back wins in Ligue 1 and lifted themselves up to 15th place as three late goals secured a 3-0 victory at Nancy. Pedro Pauleta opened the scoring with a penalty on 70 minutes, and Pierre-Alain Frau (86) and Marcelo Gallardo (89) clinched the win.

Lyon also left it late, coming from behind to beat Lille 2-1 away from home, although Tiago was absent for the champions. Marco Ramos played the full ninety minutes of Lens’ 0-0 draw with Monaco.

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Germany - Bundesliga

Stuttgart threaten leaders

Werder Bremen’s disastrous Bundesliga run continued as they were beaten 2-0 at home by lowly Hamburg on Saturday. Hugo Almedia came on in the 64th minute for Bremen, but could not prevent them from going down to their third league defeat in a row.

Stuttgart appear to be the side most likely to challenge leaders Schalke for the title, and they showed little signs of missing captain Fernando Meira as they hammered Frankfurt 4-0. Schalke drew 2-2 with Wolfsburg, who were without left-back Alex.

Sergio Pinto watched from the bench as his Alemannia Aachen side beat defending champions Bayern Munich 1-0 at home, while Ze Antonio’s Gladbach lost 1-0 at Borussia Dortmund.

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Italy - Serie A

Inter unstoppable

Inter Milan moved a step closer to the Serie A title as they racked up their sixteenth consecutive league win against Cagliari, while closest rivals Roma were beaten at Empoli. Luis Figo played the full ninety minutes for the Nerazurri, while Jose Semedo again failed to make the Cagliari squad.

Parma, without veteran defender Fernando Couto, slipped down to second from bottom with a 1-0 home defeat to Sampdoria. Jose Vidigal came on with three minutes remaining as his Livorno side were 2-1 winners over Messina. Ricardo Esteves missed Reggina’s 1-1 draw with Atalanta.

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Spain - La Liga

Exciting La Liga race

The Spanish title race was thrown wide open after Deco was sent off as champions Barcelona were beaten 2-1 by Valencia at the Mestalla. Miguel played the full ninety minutes at right-back for Los Ches, while Hugo Viana remained on the bench as Valencia moved to within four points of top spot.

The result also gave second place Sevilla the chance to close the gap, and the Andalucians beat Atletico Madrid 3-1 at home to go level on points with the champions. Costinha and Maniche started in midfield for Atletico, while Duda played the last twelve minutes for Sevilla.

Former Sporting defender Beto scored the winner as Recreativo beat bottom placed Real Sociedad 1-0. Miguel Areias was on the bench as Celta Vigo recorded a much needed win, surprisingly beating strong home side Osasuna 1-0.

Jorge Andrade was in the Deportivo La Coruna backline for their home 0-0 draw with Levante, while Jose Nunes’ Mallorca went down 3-1 at Espanyol.

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Others

Belgium

Standard Liege recovered from last week’s defeat to Zulte-Waregem with a 3-2 home win over rock-bottom Lierse. Nuno Coelho and Sergio Conceicao played the full match for third place Standard.

Cyprus

Tiago Carneiro and Hugo Machado were in the Olympiakos Nicosia side beaten 2-0 by Aris, who selected Manuel Puma in midfield. Luis Andrade missed Pafos’ 3-1 defeat at Ayia Napa.

Joao Paiva played for Apollon as they lost 3-1 at Ethnikos. Nelson Veiga and Edgar Marcelino were in the Omonia side that won 2-1 at Digenis.

Greece

Daniel Fernandes was the hero for PAOK Salonika as he saved a second-half penalty during his side’s 1-0 home win over Aris Saloniki. PAOK led through a 15th minute goal from Hristos Melissis, and Fernandes kept his side ahead by saving Papadopoulos’ spot-kick ten minutes into the second period.

Carlos Carneiro played for Panionios as they were beaten 1-0 at Larisa. Lourenco was missing for the visitors, while Felipe da Costa was taken off after an hour by Larisa. Ednilson was on the bench for OFI as they beat Kalamaria 2-0 at home. Daniel Kenedy played as Ergotelis won 1-0 at Iraklis.

Holland

PSV increased their lead at the top of the Eredivisie to six points, but were without Manuel da Costa for a 2-0 win at Heracles. Virgilio Teixeira played the full match for RKC Waalwijk as they were beaten 1-0 at NEC Nijmegen.

Scotland

Hearts were again without the injured Bruno Aguiar and Jose Goncalves as they were held to a frustrating 1-1 home draw with St Mirren. Vitor Lima watched from the bench and Pedro Moutino started as Falkirk lost 2-1 at Rangers.

Switzerland

Joao Pinto was missing but Carlitos played the full ninety minutes for FC Sion as they suffered a disappointing 2-0 defeat at St Gallen.

Grasshoppers were 2-0 winners away at FC Thun, although Roberto Pinto was not available for the visitors while Nelson Ferreira played 75 minutes for the home side. Luis Calapes missed Luzern’s 1-0 defeat at Basel. Carlos da Silva came on at half time for Schaffhausen but could not prevent them from going down 3-2 at Aarau.

Turkey

Neca returned to the Konyaspor midfield as the ‘Green Lightnings’ beat Turkish heavyweights Besiktas 2-1 at home on Friday. Erman Ozgur opened the scoring for the Konya side on 15 minutes, only for Marcio Nobre to level for Besiktas on the stroke of half time, but Tayfun’s 57th minute goal earned all three points for the hosts.

Star Performer

Beto (Recreativo Huelva)

Former Portuguese international defender Beto has featured heavily so far this season for La Liga surprise package Recreativo Huelva, and scored the only goal of the game as his side beat Real Sociedad 1-0 to move into 7th place.

Earlier round-ups