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Wolfsburg eliminates Portsmouth from UEFA Cup

Thu 4th, December 2008

Wolfsburg, Germany (Sports Network) - Zvjezdan Misimovic stole the ball off the feet of Portsmouth and England goalie David James to score the winning goal in Wolfsburg's 3-2 UEFA Cup win Thursday that sent the Germans into the next round and eliminated the English side.

Wolfsburg, AC Milan and Braga, which edged Heerenveen 2-1 on Thursday, secured the top three spots in Group E and berths in the knockout stage.

Hamburg, Aston Villa and Ajax wrapped up the top three spots in Group F, Saint Etienne and Valencia clinched in Group G and CSKA Moscow finished off a perfect run in Group H as nine of the 12 spots in the four groups were decided.

Wolfsburg and Portsmouth combined for four goals in the opening 23 minutes at Volkswagen Arena, ultimately setting up James' mistake and Misimovic's winner.

Edin Dzeko opened the scoring in the third minute for Wolfsburg, but Portsmouth answered with goals three minutes apart from Jermain Defoe (11th minute) and Arnold Mvuemba (14th).

Christian Gentner leveled the match in the 23rd, and Misimovic eventually broke the deadlock in the closing stages. James tried to dribble around Misimovic in the penalty box and the Wolfsburg midfielder stole the ball and slotted into an empty net.

James later denied Misimovic on a penalty kick, but Portsmouth couldn't create an equalizer and lost for the second time in three UEFA Cup matches.

Wason Renteria and Luis Bernardo Aguiar scored as Braga rallied from an early deficit to secure advancement and eliminate Heerenveen. AC Milan didn't play on Thursday but clinched based on the day's results.

In Group F, Vladimir Leitner and Peter Styvar scored in the opening 19 minutes and Zilina held off Aston Villa - even though the English side still advanced - and Ivica Olic and Mladen Petric scored to lead Hamburg to a 2-0 victory over Slavia Prague.

Hamburg, Aston Villa and Ajax - which all have six points - have one match left in group play to determine the final order of the teams.

In Group G, Nikola Zigic scored in the 60th minute to help Valencia tie Club Brugge 1-1 to secure advancement and Mikael Antonsson scored in the 85th minute to help Copenhagen earn a 1-1 draw against Rosenborg, which was eliminated.

St. Etienne, which was idle, also secured a spot in the next stage. Club Brugge and Copenhagen meet on the last day of the stage to decide the last qualifier.

In Group H, Vagner Love scored a hat trick as CSKA Moscow defeated Nancy 4-3 to finish a perfect 4-0 and Deportivo got a second-minute goal from Diego Colotto and held on for a 1-1 draw against Lech Poznan.

Feyenoord, which was idle, was eliminated but Nancy, Deportivo and Lech Poznan are still battling for the final two spots from the group.

The UEFA Cup group stage wraps up on Dec. 17-18.