Round-up: Staunton seals Villa win

Marcus Allbäck scored on his debut as Aston Villa FC cruised through their UEFA Intertoto Cup tie against FC Zürich with a 3-0 win on Saturday.

Surprise defeat
Having sustained a surprise 2-0 defeat in the first leg in Switzerland, Villa kept their nerve at home to earn a 3-2 aggregate win. Former tennis professional Michael Boulding opened the scoring, applying the finishing touch to a headed pass from giant striker Peter Crouch.

Unstoppable shot
Four minutes into the second half, Allbäck made it 2-0 as he chased Paul Merson's elegant chip through the Zürich defence and volleyed an unstoppable shot past goalkeeper Miroslav König. The Swedish international could easily have had a second goal a few minutes later but his chip was comfortably saved by König.

Firm header
It was left to veteran Republic of Ireland midfield player Steve Staunton to apply the finishing touch for Villa after 77 minutes. Staunton stole into the Zürich penalty area to head Thomas Hitzlsperger's cross past König and send his side into the next round of the competition against Lille OSC.

First-half sending-off
Czech side FK Teplice humbled 1. FC Kaiserslautern to cruise into the UEFA Intertoto Cup semi-finals 5-2 on aggregate. The German 1. Bundesliga team led 2-1 from their home leg and maintained that advantage after a scoreless first half. However, the sending-off of Kaiserlautern's Michael Mifsud in the 44th minute was a sign that things were to go the hosts' way.

Teplice goals
It took just two minutes of the second half for Teplice to level the aggregate score through Pavel Horvath, and although the Czechs themselves went down to ten men in the 51st-minute when Tomas Kukol was dismissed, a quarter-of-an-hour later they went ahead in the tie with a goal from Petr Vorisek. Kaiserslautern were not able to come back from this blow, and in the last four minutes Teplice, who in the last round had beaten Portugal's CD Santa Clara 9-2 on aggregate, sealed the the win with further goals from Ludek Zelenka and Pavel Verbir.

Stuttgart through
There was better luck for Kaiserslautern's compatriots VfB Stuttgart, who progressed 4-3 on aggregate against Italians AC Perugia despite losing 2-1 in their away leg, another game in which both sides had a player dismissed.

Second period action
The first goal did not come until the 52nd minute, when Ioan Ganea struck for Stuttgart, to leave their opponents needing three to even take the tie into extra time. Perugia were given hope by the sending-off of Stuttgart's Fernando Meira in the 70th minute, and almost immediately afterwards the scores on the day were level thanks to Fabrizio Miccoli. However, on-loan Perugia defender William Viali was red-carded on 74 minutes, and although Giovanni Tedesco put the Italians ahead in the leg in injury time, his goal was not enough to prevent Stuttgart's progress.

Slaven ease through
Stuttgart's semi-final opponents will be Croatians NK Slaven Belupo after they added a 3-1 home victory against PFC Marek of Bulgaria to their 3-0 away win last week to take their last four place 6-1 on aggregate. Mario Kovacevic opened the scoring for the home team on 27 minutes, and although Marek soon equalised, two second-half goals, including another from Kovacevic, sealed Slaven's advance to within two ties of the UEFA Cup.

Goalless in Belarus
Bologna FC have gone one better than their Serie A rivals after holding Belarussians FC BATE Borisov 0-0 to progress 2-0 overall. Julio Cruz and Claudio Belluci's goals from the first leg in Italy proved enough for Bologna to go through at the expense of the side that knocked out TSV 1860 München in the second round to meet another side who have conquered German opposition, Teplice.