Former European champion Olympique Marseille was knocked out of the UEFA Cup fourth round by Zenit St. Petersburg, while Italy's Udinese ousted by Bulgaria's Levski Sofia.

In two other games on Thursday, Basel advanced to the quarterfinals at the expense of Strasbourg, and Germany's Schalke kicked out Palermo.

Later, Spain's Real Betis was thrashed by Romania's Steaua Bucharest 0-3 after a 0-0 draw in the first leg.

On Wednesday, Middlesbrough, Rapid Bucharest and Sevilla advanced.

The quarterfinal draw is Friday in Eindhoven, Netherlands, with the games set for March 30 and April 6. The semifinals are April 20-27, and the final is May 10 in Eindhoven.

At St. Petersburg, Russia, Zenit and Marseille drew 1-1 with the Russian club reaching its first UEFA Cup quarterfinals 2-1 on aggregate.

At Sofia, Bulgaria, Daniel Borimirov and Igor Tomasic scored in the second half and Levski Sofia rallied to beat Italy's Udinese 2-1. They drew 0-0 in the first leg.

At Strasbourg, France, Basel reached the quarterfinals after a 2-2 draw with Strasbourg. The Swiss club went through 4-2 on aggregate.

At Gelsenkirchen, Schalke rallied from a 1-0 loss in the first leg to beat Palermo 3-0 and oust another Italian club. Schalke, which won the UEFA Cup in 1997, is the only German first division team to reach quarterfinals of European competition this season.

Source: Xinhua