HOLDERS Juventus had to come from a goal down in Norway before earning a 1-1 draw with Rosenborg in their quarter-final. After a scoreless first half, two goals in as many minutes from Trond Soltvedt for Rosenborg and Christian Vieri for Juventus brought the tie to life, but left the Italians in the driving seat for the second leg.
Juventus, without Alessandro Del Piero and Croatian Alen Boksic, struggled in the first half. However, they dominated the second and were unlucky not to score a second goal which probably would have made the match in Turin a formality. Juventus coach Marcello Lippi said: "We had chances to win, but I'm happy enough with the result."
In Amsterdam, Argentina striker Juan Esnaider shot Atletico Madrid ahead, but Patrick Kluivert, scorer of the Ajax goal that won the title in the 1995 final against AC Milan, levelled eight minutes into the second half. The game finished 1-1.
However, the young Dutch star will miss the return leg after collecting a second yellow card in the competition for protesting to the linesman after an offside decision.
A late, late strike from midfield star Andi Moller helped Borussia Dortmund take a giant step towards the semi-finals as they saw off a spirited Auxerre 3-1. The Germans, beaten last year at the quarter-final stage by Ajax, took the game to the French champions from the start and established a two-goal lead by the early stages of the second half. After the battling French pulled one back, Moller stepped up to ensure the win for the home side.
Dortmund's early pressure was rewarded on 12 minutes when Karlheinz Riedle scored with a diving header following Stephene Chapuisat's acrobatic overhead cross.
Given Dortmund's injury problems in defence with both 1996 European Footballer of the Year Matthias Sammer and Juergen Kohler missing, Ottmar Hitzfeld's men had little option other than to opt for attack. Rene Schneider promptly put them two up with a towering header in the 54th minute from a Chapuisat free kick.
But just as Auxerre appeared to be tiring, Saib Lamouchi pulled back a crucial away goal with a quarter of an hour remaining, driving home from the edge of the box to leave the tie poised on a knife edge. Moller then made his dramatic contribution, taking an astute pass from Ghanaian substitute Ibrahim Tanko to slide the ball home past Luc Charbonnier with seven minutes left.
Dortmund will be without key defender Stefan Reuter for the return in two weeks time after he was red-carded for a foul on Franck Diomede his second bookable offence.
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