Blackburn left to regret last-gasp goal

Blackburn Rovers suffered late UEFA Cup heartbreak as they came within 90 seconds of beating Salzburg, who claimed a 2-2 draw at home to Rovers.

In coming from behind in this UEFA Cup first-round, first leg tie with goals from Robbie Savage and Benni McCarthy, Rovers were poised to win on the road on the continent for the first time in nine attempts.

But they were unable to weather a late Salzburg storm as Marc Janko grabbed an equaliser in the second minute of injury-time.

However, with the home return to come in a fortnight's time Blackburn are still well placed to reach the group stages.

The ground was thrown into semi-darkness and Polish referee Tomasz Mikulski called a halt, with play resuming a little more than six minutes later when power was restored.

Blackburn were in the dark six minutes later when the predatory Alexander Zickler, who came into the game with a record of seven goals in seven league games, coolly slipped a right-foot shot to the left of the advancing Brad Friedel after a quickly taken throw.

Salzburg's celebrations, though, lasted less than two minutes as Blackburn were quickly back on level terms, with Savage scoring only his second goal in 60 appearances for the club.

Following a Christian Tiffert foul on David Bentley, midfielder Savage then curled a 22-yard right-foot free-kick into the top right-hand corner, with goalkeeper Timo Ochs given no chance.

The fumbling Ochs, who had earlier in the game almost handed the lead on a plate to Blackburn when he allowed a simple headed back-pass to slip under his foot, certainly gifted Rovers their second goal.

After failing to hold onto a 35-yard free-kick piledriver from Morten Gamst Pedersen, McCarthy made Ochs pay by sidefooting home the rebound from six yards for his second goal since a £2.5million summer move from Porto.

Remarkably, in the space of seven minutes Rovers had more than doubled their goal output from their four Barclays Premiership matches to date.

An even more remarkable statistic from the first half, in which there were seven minutes added-on time, was that there were five bookings - with Bentley involved in all of them.

A pedantic Mikulski booked Bentley, along with Salzburg's Laszlo Bodnar, Ezequiel Carboni, Tiffert and Remo Meyer, all for fouls on the Rovers midfielder.

As at the start of the first half, Rovers were again then forced to weather Salzburg pressure early in the second, although Friedel was hardly ever tested.

Instead, the chances fell Rovers' way with Bentley forcing a fisted save from Ochs, while Zurab Khizanishvili saw a dipping 25-yarder fall just wide.

Savage then ballooned over from eight yards, although he appeared to be caught unawares by the opportunity, before Gamst glanced a piercing left-wing free-kick from Savage just wide.

Then in the closing stages Blackburn came under severe pressure, with Friedel pushing a downward header from Niko Kovac onto the post and Thomas Linke clipping the woodwork.
Milan Dudic headed a yard wide, while Friedel saved from sub Karel Pitak - but in failing to clear their lines, it allowed Salzburg to grab their late equaliser, with 6ft 5ins Janko heading home a Kovac cross.