Alavés 5 - Kaiserslautern 1

Alavés: Herrera; Contra, Téllez, Eggen, Geli; Pablo (Astudillo 59'), Desio; Tomic, Jordi Cruyff (Karmona 73'), Ibon Begoña; Iván Alonso (Magno 78'). 4-2-3-1.
Kaiserslauten: G. Koch; Ratinho, Ramzy, H. Koch, Strasser; Pettersen (Domínguez 46'), Basler, Hristov, Grammozis; Klose, Lokvenc (Marschall 70'). 4-4-2.

Goals:
1-0. 20. Contra (penalty). After Ramzy ruled to have pulled Cruyff back.
2-0. 30. Contra (penalty). Following trip by Strasser on Tomic on edge of area.
3-0. 41. Jordi Cruyff. From close range after Tomic curled free kick across goal.
4-0. 57. Iván Alonso (penalty). After Cruyff bundled over by Basler.
4-1. 67. H. Koch (penalty). Grammozis pushed down in area by Geli.
5-1. 81. Magno. Played one two with Ibon Begoña and shot around keeper.

Alavés lived up to their nickname, 'El Glorioso', with a glorious 5-1 victory over high-flying Kaiserslauten. Of all the Spanish teams playing in Europe this week, the minnows from the Basque capital of Vitoria were the least expected to do well, but in the end they were the only team out of the five to win. And what a win it was, although to be fair to the Germans Norwegian referee Rune Pedersen had a large hand in the final result, awarding four penalties during the match, including three to Alavés.

Mané played a game of chess with his line up, announcing the day before the match that top scorer Javi Moreno would play, knowing that he had not yet recovered from the injury he picked up playing for Spain. The crowd turned up en masse to see their team, although with 17,000 spectators the Medizorroza stadium was still not quite full. Most of those present though knew that the team were carrying their names on their backs, literally in fact as the pink shirts they were wearing included the names of all season ticket holders in microfiche.

Alavés came out full of confidence, with Téllez celebrating his call up for Spain setting up Moreno's replacement Iván Alonso early on, and the defender himself going close with a couple of efforts. Then (P)rune Pedersen gave a controversial penalty for a fairly harmless tug on Jordi Cruyff's shirt and Contra stepped up to slam the ball home from the penalty spot. Ten minutes later the Romanian full back repeated the act after Strasser tripped Tomic on the edge of the area. Basler brought a reaction save out of Herrera with a free kick which bent wickedly at the last second, but Alavés were three ahead before half time when the Kaiserslauten defence went to sleep allowing Cruyff to slot home Tomic's free kick.

Iván Alonso got the ball in the net early in the second half with a shot from the edge of the area, but Pedersen ruled it out for a previous offside. The Argentinian striker did get his name on the scoresheet a few minutes later though from the penalty spot, Mané instructing him to take the kick after deciding that the German keeper Koch had probably worked out Contra's strategy by then. Then came the penalty at the other end, which Harry Koch put in off the crossbar, and finally Magno came on for Alonso to add the fifth for the home side near the end. Alavés had recorded the biggest defeat on a German team by a Spanish side since Real Madrid beat Frankfurt 7-3 in the 1960 European cup final, and nothing short of a miracle can stop them from returning to Germany for the final in Dortmund on 16th May. Liverpool or Barcelona, beware.