late relief for leeds published: friday 4 october 2002 fc metalurh zaporizhya 1-1 leeds united afc (agg: 1-2) nick barmby's goal saves leeds.
leeds united afc won through to the uefa cup second round, but were make to work hard by ukrainian hosts fc metalurh zaporizhya as their first european campaign ended in a 2-1 aggregate defeat. the english visitors needed a late nick barmby strike to go through, having trailed for most of the game.
modebadze heads goal after a first 24 minutes in which home goalkeeper andriy glushchenko had been the only shot-stopper called into action, zaporizhya went ahead. fabio's lob hit the crossbar, and irakli modebadze was on hand to head in.
glushchenko bravely saves this clearly surprised leeds, who were unlucky not to level soon after when dominic matteo's shot was bravely stopped by glushchenko. but zaporizhya proved well capable of containing leeds until late in the second half.
close to second zaporizhya even went close on 73 minutes when armen akopyan's curling free-kick from 20 metres hit the post with robinson beaten.
vital away goal but leeds kept pressing, and four minutes later secured the vital away goal when harry kewell beat eduard valuta on the left and his cross was deflected by glushchenko to alan smith. his header fell into the path of barmby, who shot into an unguarded net.
visitors' relief uros milosavljevic's subsequent sending-off for a second bookable offence sealed the hosts' fate, but manager terry venables admitted: "it was a dramatic game. the goal was against the run of play, but it made us seriously worry. i am happy we could equalise in normal time. i think the class of my players told in the end."
'mixed feelings' zaporizhya's caretaker coach, oleg lutkov, said: "i have very mixed feelings at the moment. i have to praise my team, who caused serious problems for one of europe's top clubs. on the other hand, we lost late goals in both matches."
