Yuri Zhirkov scored the deciding goal and Daniel Carvalho had three
assists to help CSKA Moscow beat Sporting Lisbon 3-1 and capture the UEFA
Cup on Wednesday.
Alexei Berezutskiy and Vagner Love also scored for CSKA, which became
the first Russian club to win the European title.
Trailing 1-0, Carvalho sent a free kick to Berezutskiy for the tying
goal in the 57th minute. CSKA took the lead in the 66th when Carvalho
sent a through ball to
Zhirkov, who ran into the area and shot the ball through the legs of
Sporting goalie Ricardo.
Love made it 3-1 in the 75th, scoring into an open net after a pass
from Carvalho on the counterattack.
"We were ashamed by our first-half performance," Carvalho said. "In the
interval, we felt that if we were going to lose, we should lose with
honor, so we went out and played like we can."
Carvalho, who moved from the Brazilian club Internacional last year,
was named man of the match.
Rogerio gave Sporting a 1-0 lead in the 28th minute, sending a chip
from outside the box into the top right corner of the goal to beat
19-year-old goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev.
Sporting had more possession in the first half, but despite having
eight corners to CSKA's one, its considerably shorter forwards had
difficulty getting past the Russian defense.
"We knew Sporting would start strong in front of their own fans so for
the first 20 minutes we had to be careful and defensive to slow them
down," said CSKA coach Valery Gazzaev. "In the second half, we had to
correct our midfield and we became more offensive."
The small section of red-and-blue clad CSKA fans let off flares in the
stands in celebration. Around
4,000 CSKA fans were in the 45,000-seat stadium, vastly outnumbered by the
home crowd.
The UEFA Cup is the No. 2 tournament in Europe behind the Champions
Cup.
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-05-19 08:37
