Round-up of the weekend action in Esatern Europe: ROMANIA
Steaua Bucharest enjoyed their biggest win of the season in an 8-1 demolition of Poli AEK Timisoara to stay two points behind city rivals Dinamo, who beat Otelul Galati 2-0.
Adrian Rica Neaga netted a hat-trick, Sorin Paraschiv and Nicolae Dica added two apiece and Laurientitu Dinita scored one as the former European Cup winners stunned the 40,000 home crowd.
Dan Alexa and Ionel Danciulescu were on target to give Dinamo an important home win against Galati while champions Rapid Bucharest fell a further behind after a 1-1 draw with Bacau and are now seven points off the pace.
POLAND
Champions Wisla Krakow fought back from a three-goal deficit at Wisla Plock for a thrilling 4-4 draw to stay top, two points ahead of Legia Warsaw who enjoyed an easy 3-0 home win against Polkowice.
Two goals apiece by Ireneusz Jelen and Dariusz Gesior gave Plock a 4-1 first half lead but Wisla hit back through Miroslaw Szymkowiak, Maciej Zurawski and Tomasz Frankowski to salvage a point.
Marek Saganowksi scored his seventh goal in five matches when he turned in a good cross to send Legia on their way against Polkowice. Piotr Wlodarczyk and Lukasz Surma made sure of the win in the closing stages.
UKRAINE
Champions and league leaders Dynamo Kiev stretched their lead at the top to four points and took a giant step towards retaining the title with a 4-2 win at closest rivals Shakhtar Donetsk.
Maris Verpakovskis scored from an acute angle and Brazilian midfielder Diogo Rincon netted to give Dynamo a 2-0 lead before the hosts drew level through Marisusz Lewandwoski and an Anatoliy Tymsochuk scorcher.
Croatian international Jerko Leko restored Dynamo's lead with a fierce shot on the hour mark and second half substitute Florin Cernat sealed the game three minutes from time when he rounded off a swift breakaway move.
BULGARIA
Lokomotiv Plovdiv beat Rodopa Smolyan 2-0 to remain four points ahead of champions CSKA Sofia and Litex Lovech, who also enjoyed home wins.
Martin Kamburov headed home a corner at the stroke of halftime and Ivan Paskov drove in a low shot in the 79th minute to give Lokomotiv three valuable points against Rodopa.
Litex Lovech beat Spartak Varna 2-1 thanks to a brace from striker Zoran Jaknkovic while CSKA kept alive their hopes of retaining the title with a 3-1 win over Vidima Rakovski.
RUSSIA
Sergey Budylin converted a sixth minute penalty and Alexander Panov scored three minutes from time to give front runners Torpedo Moscow a 2-1 win over city rivals Spartak.
Torpedo share the top spot with Zenit St. Petersburg, who strolled to a 2-0 win at Amkar Perm thanks to goals from Andrey Arshavin and Alexander Spivak either side of the interval.
Champions CSKA Moscow stayed in the top four, two points behind the leaders, with a 3-1 home win against Kuban Krasnodar.
SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO
Red Star Belgrade had their lead at the top slashed to three points as they managed only a 1-1 draw at Borac Cacak as second-placed champions Partizan Belgrade closed the gap with a 1-0 win over Hajduk Kula.
Sasa Stevic gave lowly Borac a 1-0 lead with a 51st minute effort while Red Star salvaged a point with a spectacular volley from Nenad Stojanovic in the sixth minute of injury time.
Partizan missed numerous chances against Hajduk but won thnaks to a 45th minute header by defender Nenad Djordjevic, who found the back of the net after a well taken corner.
Crowd trouble marred the match between Buducnost Banatski Dvor and Zemun Belgrade, when visiting Zemun fans staged a pitch invasion midway through the first half and forced a 20-minute delay.
CROATIA
Hajduk Split maintained a five-point lead over champions Dinamo Zagreb with a 1-0 win at fourth-placed Rijeka, courtesy of a Vlatko Djolonga header after a perfect cross from the right by Mario Carevic.
Dinamo Zagreb stayed in touch with a 5-0 demolition of Zadar which started with a bizarre own goal in the 28th minute, when Ferdo Milin could not get out of the way of a fine reflex save by his own keeper.
Dinamo striker Niko Kranjcar crowned a fine individual performance with two goals.
SLOVENIA
Front runners Nova Gorica were held to a 0-0 home draw by Murska and the race for the title looks set to go down to the wire with Olimpija Ljubljana and Maribor only a point behind.
Sasa Jakomin netted two brilliant goals, a 20-metre screamer and a volley, to give NK Koper a 2-2 draw at Olimpija, whose scorers were Anton Zlogar and Marko Kmetec.
Maribor missed a good chance to go top in a 1-1 home draw with Ajdovscina Primorje as they squandered a 47th minute penalty and let in an injury time goal against the fourth-placed visitors.
SLOVAKIA
Leaders Banska Bystrica stayed two points ahead of Spartak Trnava after a 1-1 draw at Trencin, both goals coming within a minute shortly after the break. Pavol Suhaj gave Trencin a 47th minute lead and Pavel Kulig replied for the visitors.
Trnava snatched a point in a dramatic 2-2 draw against nine-man Slovan Bratislava as Marek Uljaky converted a last minute penalty after the visitors had keeper Daniel Kiss sent off for a professional foul and Martin Suchy for dissent.
Third-placed Ruzomberok's title hopes were dented in a 1-0 home defeat to Dubnica.
CZECH REPUBLIC
Banik Ostrava kept their five-point advantage at the top intact with a goalless home draw against Jablonec as second-placed Sigma Olomouc were held to a 2-2 draw at Blsany.
Martin Horacek fired Blsany ahead after only two minutes and Ludek Zelenka gave them a 2-1 lead in the 74th minute after Roman Hubnik had drawn level. Radim Kucera nodded home Sigma's second equaliser two minutes later.
HUNGARY
Ferencvaros keeper Lajosz Szucz set a new personal record by keeping a clean sheet for 698 minutes in a 3-0 win over Sopron, keeping the league leaders five points ahead of Debrecen who beat Ujpest 2-0 on Sunday.
Two goals from Attila Tokoli and one by Sorin Botis gave Ferencvaros an easy victory over Sopron, the bottom side in the six-team championship play-off.
MACEDONIA
Leaders Pobeda Prilep beat Belasica Strumica 3-0 to stay three points ahead of Sileks Kratovo, who stayed in touch with a 3-1 defeat of Tikves Kavadarci.
Sloga Skopje slipped from second to third with a surprise 2-1 home defeat to Baskimi while champions Vardar Skopje are eight points off the pace with only a slim chance of retaining the title after a 3-3 draw at Cementarnica.
Source: Reuters
13.04.2004