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Bolton recorded one of their most memorable results in recent memory as they beat Atletico Madrid 1-0 at the Reebok Stadium. El-Hadji Diouf's 74th minute strike gave Wanderers the one goal advantage going into next Thursday's second leg in Madrid. Atletico substitute Aguero was sent off for spitting a minute before Bolton took the lead following a strong challenge on Matt Taylor. Taylor almost gave Gary Megson's side the lead inside the opening minute at the Reebok, latching onto a Nicky Hunt cross, forcing a good save out of goalkeeper Christian Abbiati. The former Portsmouth man came close again moments later as he attempted to catch out Abbiati, but the keeper on loan from AC Milan managed to push the Taylor's effort round for a corner at his near post. He tried again with ten minutes on the clock, but put his shot over the crossbar after good work from Kevin Davies. But despite Wanderers early dominance, it was the visitors that came closest to breaking the deadlock inside the opening 15 minutes. After Diouf sent Simao sprawling, causing a mass brawl, the Senegalese international was booked by Danish referee Marcus Rasmussen, as was Atletico's Jose Reyes for dissent shown to the referee. Reyes floated the free-kick into the Bolton penalty area and Jussi Jaaskelainen was forced into a superb save, pushing Antonio Lopez's header over the bar for a corner, to the relief of the Bolton faithful. A Jaaskelainen long ball picked out Davies ten minutes later, and the forward chested the ball down, turned his man and shot narrowly wide of goal with support lacking from the Trotters midfield. Atletico went very close five minutes before the break, with Simao trying his luck from the edge of the area, shooting just wide of Jaaskelainen's right hand post with the Finn looking beaten. Taylor forced Abbiati into another save on the stroke of half-time, but after an entertaining 45 minutes, the two sides went in goalless at the interval. The 26-year-old seemed to have his shooting boots on and tried another effort five minutes into the second half, but Abbiati made a simple save down to his right. Danny Guthrie was next to try his luck, but his effort from distance lacked any real venom. The goalkeeper then sent the visitors on a counter attack which resulted in Diego Forlan shooting into the side netting. At this stage, Javier Aguirre's side looked the more likely goalscorers and Maxi Rodriguez sliced wide just after the hour, resulting in another counter attack, this time from the hosts. A Davies knockdown just inside the penalty area was met by Kevin Nolan, but the Wanderers skipper couldn't quite get over the ball and put his effort into the stands. The game took a huge turn on 73 minutes, with Atletico substitute Aguero apparantly spitting in the direction of Matt Taylor and the linesman after a foul. The linesman immediately called over referee Rasmussen who called the striker over and showed him the red card. From the resulting free-kick, Wanderers took the lead. Substitute Stelios Giannakopoulos picked out Taylor in the area, but after his header was blocked, Diouf put the ball into the far corner to send a sell-out crowd into ecstacy. There were a few nervous faces around the ground as the clock wore down, but neither side managed to carve out any more goalscoring opportunities and Megson's side held on to take a one goal advantage into the second leg in Madrid. After denying their visitors an away goal, Wanderers stand a good chance of advancing to the last 16 of the competition, one stage further than that of two years ago. |
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