RAPID VIENNA and Feyenoord vital away goals in their European Cup Winners' Cup first leg matches against Dynamo, Moscow and Buressia Meonchengladbach, respectively, while Parma struggled to over come Paris St Germain at home and Deportivo Coruna beat Real Zaragoza 1-0 in the all Spanish clash.
Rapid Vienna set themselves up for a place in the semi finals in Moscow with a 1-0 triumph over Dynamo Moscow in a match played on a frozen pitch at the Lokomotiv Stadium.
Christian Stumprs goal in the 35th minute proved to be the decider as the Austrians went on the offensive in the first period chasing an all important away goal.
Stumpf capitalised on a defensive mix up to run through and beat Dinamo goalkeeper Andrei Smetanin with the low shot from just inside the box.
Dinamo spent much of the first minutes penned in their own half, but they reacted by ringing changes before the break, with Sheryshev and Safronov with barely 40 minutes on the clock.
And Dynamo did turn up the heat after the interval. Their best chance came with two minutes remaining after Peter Schottel conceded a free kick near the penalty area. But Andrei Kobelev's effort came back off the right hand post.
In Parma, Hristo Stoichkov, Bulgaria's World Cup hero, earned the home team a precious 1-0 victory over Paris St Germain in a scrappy tie.
Stoichkov's 60th minute shot broke the deadlock that will force the French onto the offensive at the Parc des Princes in a fortnight's time.
Clean through after beating PSG's offside trap, Stoichkov should have put Parma 1-0 up after barely 10 minutes. However, the Bulgarian's over casual flick was easily stopped by French national goalkeeper Bernard Lama.
Lama was soon in action again, pushing away Roberto Mussi's searing drive across the face of the goal after the Italian defender had wriggled his way through the French defence.
Stoichkov and Dino Baggio both tried their luck from long range but neither came close, while PSG were positively feeble, at the other end.
Lama was back in action soon after the restart, but Stoichkov made no mistake with his second chance of the night. Finding space and collecting the ball on the left hand side of the area, he swept in for the kill, unleashing a ferocious low far post drive that had Lama well beaten.
The Parisians hit back, and came agonisingly close to an equaliser when Patrice Loko's angled shot hit the inside of the post but amazingly bounced out instead of into the net in the 73rd minute.
Brazilian star Rai instantly fired in the rebound, but the shot cannoned off Parma skipper Luigi Apolloni. With less than five minutes to go, Lama completed a hat trick of one on one saves, the PSG skipper defying Inzagbi from three yards, to keep the French club in with a chance in the second leg.
In Dusseldorf, defensive lynchpin Ronald Koeman broke Borussia Moenchengladbach's hearts earning Feyenoord a 2-2 away draw. Koeman, whose free, kick won the 1992 European Cup for Barcelona, struck from the penalty spot right on half time before a 54,000 crowd to set up an exciting second leg in Rotterdam.
Feyenoord twice had to come from behind as Peter Wynhoff blasted the opener for the German cup holders after just four minutes. And Thomas, Kastenmaier had Bernd Krauss' side back in the ascendancy with his 43rd minute penalty kick after Jean Paul Van Gastel had equalised on 34 minutes.
But, roared on by some 15,000 visiting fans, Koeman's side fought back and, having made it all square at 2-2, held out for a scoring draw which makes them overwhelming favourites for a berth in the semi finals.
A 69th minute goal by substitute David Fernandez gave Deportivo Coruna a well deserved 1-0 victory over holders Zaragoza.
Fernandez, who replaced injured Spanish international Javier Manjarin, had been on the field less than 10 minutes when he picked up the ball following a mistake in the Zaragoza defence and kept his head to flick the ball over advancing goalkeeper Jose Belman.
The goal put new life into a game which continual pressure from Deportivo had managed to put to sleep. Belman kept his side in the game with a series of point blank saves from Aitor Begiristain, Branko Milovanovic and Manjarin, who was carried off after colliding with Belman in the 60th minute.