Barcelona struggle to contain Dutch threat

BARCELONA came from behind twice to earn a 2-2 draw with PSV Eindhoven in a pulsating UEFA Cup quarter-final, first leg game …

BARCELONA came from behind twice to earn a 2-2 draw with PSV Eindhoven in a pulsating UEFA Cup quarter-final, first leg game at the Nou Camp stadium last night. However, the Dutch team, who dismissed Leeds United in the second round, will now be favourites to progress.

PSV went ahead after just three minutes when a free-kick from Luc Nilis hit the Barcelona wall and the deflection gave goalkeeper Carlos Busquets no chance. Shortly afterwards Rene Eijkelkamp hit the post with a superb lob. But just as the Dutch side appeared to be running away with the game Barcelona equalised, captain Jose Maria Bakero picking up a rebound from a shot by Angel Cuellar.

Nil is put PSV ahead again four minutes into the second half when he blasted home after the Barcelona defence failed to clear a corner. The Spanish side's second equaliser came from Abelardo Fernandez in the 70th minute. He rose above a sea of players to head home a free-kick by Josep Guardiola.

A spectacular goal from a free kick by, Roberto Baggio was the high point of Italian league leaders AC Milan's 2-0, quarter-final victory over Bordeaux.

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Milan, missing three key players including Liberian striker George Weah, were well below their best in the home leg of their quarter-final. But they were still more than a match for their French opponents.

Stefanio Eranio broke the deadlock in the 29th minute, latching on to a pass just inside the area from Montenegrin Dejan Savicevic and striking the ball crisply past goalkeeper Gaetan Huard.

Baggio made sure his side would take a comfortable lead into the second leg with his 75th minute free kick, curling the ball over the Bordeaux wall into the top right-hand corner of the net.

In a frantic finale, Bordeaux striker Zinedine Zidane went down the left to try to snatch an away-goal, but from his low cross into the centre, Richard Witschge failed to connect properly, screwing his shot well wide. Eranio almost made it 3-0 in injury time, but his snapshot from the edge of the box flew just over.

Slavia Prague profited from errors by Roma goalkeeper Giovanni Cervone to achieve a 2-0 win over the Italian team in their quarter-final first leg in Czechoslovakia. Roma ended the game with 10 men after Fabio Petruzzi was sent off in the 81st minute for pulling down Slavia player Jiri Vavra.

By then, the Italians were, two goals down. In the 11th minute goalkeeper Cervone was slow to react to Karel Poborsky's floating free kick, from about 30 metres out, which sailed into the top corner of the net for Slavia's first goal. Six minutes after the interval Cervone fumbled a cross from Jiri Lerch and Robert Vagner swooped in to slot the ball into the open net to make it 2-0.

It could have finished even worse for Roma on the icy pitch. After Petruzzi was sent off, Cervone was barely able to get a hand to the ensuing free-kick by Pavel Novotny. Then, in the 90th minute, a blistering shot by Tomas Hunal just banged off the crossbar.

Slayja, two points clear at the top of the Czech first division lost striker Daniel Smejkal before the game started. He sustained a leg injury just before kick-off.