The last American left in European action was knocked out on Thursday when Brad Friedel's Blackburn Rovers could only tie Bayer Leverkusen, 0-0, and fell, 3-2, on aggregate in the round of 32 of the UEFA Cup.

Defending champion Sevilla advanced to the final 16 with a 1-0 win over Steaua Bucharest thanks to Alexander Kerzhakov's goal and a 3-0 victory on aggregate.

The 2005 champion, CSKA Moscow, wasn't so fortunate. Maccabi Haifa beat the Russian club, 1-0, on Argentine striker Roberto Colautti's goal, the only goal of the two-leg series. Other former champions to fall were Ajax (whose 3-1 win over Werder Bremen wasn't enough to make up for a 3-0 loss in the first leg) and Parma (which lost both legs to Portuguese club Braga by 1-0 scores).

Dutch club AZ kept its 28-game unbeaten streak in UEFA competitions alive when it came back from 2-0 down on goals by Maarten Martens and Barry Opdam to tie Turkey's Fenerbahce, 2-2, and go through on away goals after the series ended tied at 5-5.

Paris St. Germain put aside its troubles in France's La Ligue and beat AEK Athens, 2-0, for the second time.

The round of 16 features four club from Spain (Sevilla, Celta Vigo, Osasuna and Espanyol), two each from England (Newcastle and Tottenham), France (PSG and Lens), Germany (Werder Bremen and Bayer Leverkusen) and Portugal (Benfica and Braga) and one each from Israel (Maccabi Haifa), Scotland (Rangers), Ukraine (Shakhtar Donetsk) and the Netherlands (AZ).