lorient win in vain published: thursday 3 october 2002, 21.00cet
fc lorient 3-1 denizlispor (agg: 3-3, denizlispor win on away goals) own goal costs lorient after fightback.
despite losing 3-1 to fc lorient in france, turkish side denizlispor advanced to the uefa second round on away goals after the match finished 3-3 on aggregate.
loko close
the french side's greater urgency was obvious in the opening exchanges and they came close to pulling a goal back after seven minutes when yohan bouzin's cross found patrice loko, but the former french international striker was denied by an excellent save from dirk heinen.
martini woe
however, the visitors stunned the home crowd by scoring with only their second attack after 19 minutes. lorient defender richard martini misjudged the trajectory of ilyas kahraman's free-kick and headed the ball into his own net.
kroupi leveller
that left lorient needing to score four, and although initially stunned by denizlispor's goal, they responded gamely with loko in particular impressing with his work-rate. they were rewarded after 41 minutes when zahi kroupi headed in at the near post from pascal bedrossian's fine corner.
guel restores hope
within seconds of the restart, lorient had moved 2-1 ahead on the night. loko's excellent pass released tchiressoua guel, and the midfield player finished confidently from close range. now only needing two goals to advance, lorient redoubled their efforts, with guel leading the charge.
heinien the hero
however, the best chances they could muster came from set-pieces. bedrossian twice looked like scoring from free-kicks only to be denied by superb saves from denizlispor's german goalkeeper heinen.
too late for lorient
bedarossian was the provider when lorient finally scored again three minutes into injury time, with his corner headed home by anthony gauvin. but it was too little, too late for the home side, and to add to their disappointment, johan cavalli was dismissed deep into injury time.
