Lens live upto blood and gold’ tag

The individual performance of the night came from Arsenal’s unsung English midfielder Ray Parlour who scored a hat-trick, his first goals of the season, as the premiership side ran-out 4-2 winners over German outfit Werder Bremen.

Arsenal, who could have French striker Thierry Henry handed a three-match ban after he was sent-off for a foul in the second-half, were joined in the last four by Premiership rivals Leeds United, who qualified for their first European semi-final for 25 years despite losing 2-1 to Slavia Prague but going through 4-2 on aggregate.

Lens, who had put out Atletico Madrid in the previous round, rebounded from going behind to a superb freekick by Israeli international Haim Revivo equalising through a penalty by Valerien Ismael.

Ismael was fortunate to stay on the pitch after he picked the ball out of the net and deliberately kicked ‘keeper Jose Pinto before barging a Celta defender — English referee paul durkin calmed the febrile atmosphere down by booking him.

It was left to striker Pascal Nouma to round off the outstanding performance when he clipped the ball past Pinto from Philippe Brunel’s cross to give them the lead with his fifth goal of the campaign.

In Bremen the normally placid Henry had scored Arsenal’s fourth after Parlour, who should have nudged England coach Kevin Keegan’s eye towards making him at least a squad member for Euro 2000, selflessly set-up the Frenchman.

The Germans, who never looked like repeating their last home leg heroics when they overturned a 3-0 deficit to Lyon, responded immediately as Yugoslav international Rade Bogdanovic volleyed past Alex Manninger from 15 metres out to leave the hosts trailing 3-2.

However, despite Henry’s moment of madness and Arsenal being down to 10-men, Parlour still got his hat-trick when he burst free and cooly slotted past ‘keeper Frank Rost.

Parlour had scored a real beauty to effectively wrap up the game in the 29th minute beating three Bremen defenders on the edge of the box and clipped it with the outside of his foot into the far corner.

Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger was delighted with Parlour but annoyed at Henry’s sending-off and indicated that he would appeal against the decision.

Czech league leaders Slavia Prague maintained their unbeaten home record in the UEFA Cup coming from a goal down to beat Leeds United.

Slavia’s win ended David O’Leary’s young side’s run of five successive wins but could not stop them reaching their first European semi-final for 25 years – seven of the Leeds side that started the match were not even born at the time.

O’Leary, who has transformed the side since George Graham left 18 months ago, was furious at the manner in which his side had let the Czech’s take the match.

Leeds’ Australian star Harry Kewell scored his fourth of the campaign, 15th of the season and fifth in five games, with a sweetly taken shot from 15 metres, having run-on to Stephen McPhail’s slide-rule pass, leaving ‘keeper Radek Cerny no chance with just two minutes gone of the second-half.

Five minutes later Slavia were level when the unmarked Ivo Ulich shot past ‘keeper Nigel Martyn.

Ulich grabbed a second with a quarter-of-an-hour to go converting a penalty, which Martyn got a hand to, after Ian Harte had brought down Ludek Zelenka.

Galatasaray, who like Arsenal made it through to the UEFA Cup after finishing third in the first round Champions League group, eased through with slickly taken goals by Carlos Capone in the first-half and then their striking legend the Bull of the Bosphorous’ Hakan Sukur added a second early into the second period.

The Spaniards completed a miserable night when their coach Fernando Vasquez was sent-off shortly before the final whistle.