Lille face UEFA wrath as United, Real and PSV win

LONDON, Feb 21 (Reuters) Lille face the wrath of UEFA after their players threatened to walk off after conceding a goal and crowd trouble marred their Champions League first knockout round match with Manchester United.

United won 1-0 and joined Real Madrid, who beat Bayern Munich 3-2 and PSV Eindhoven, 1-0 winners over Arsenal, in securing slender first leg leads while AC Milan went home from Glasgow as favourites to advance after a 0-0 draw at Celtic yesterday.

New UEFA president Michel Platini on Monday had asked all 16 clubs to set an example in UEFA's premier competition after European soccer's recent hooligan problems, which included the death of a policeman at a match in Italy.

However, his words seemed to be ignored by the French club who were beaten 1-0 by a controversial Ryan Giggs freekick.

Riot police sprayed tear gas on United fans to dampen crowd trouble in the first half and, after Giggs scored what proved to be the winner for United with a quickly-taken freekick after 83 minutes, Lille's players looked set to walk off in protest.

The game soon resumed but United captain Gary Neville was then hit by missiles as he took a throw-in at the Felix-Bollaert stadium in Lens where Lille had requested to play.

REFEREE INTIMIDATED United manager Alex Ferguson thought Lille's players were going to walk off the field and told reporters afterwards he thought they should be punished by UEFA for their actions.

''I have never seen anything like it before. They totally intimidated the referee. We should not see things like that in football,'' he added.

UEFA spokesman Rob Faulkner said: ''Having seen what went on on the security side and in the match itself, it would be standard procedure for the referee to report the incidents and for the Control and Disciplinary Committee to take the appropriate action.

''The whole issue of Lille playing in that stadium will also need to be addressed. We cannot say now what action the Disciplinary Committee will take, but if they find against Lille, it could well be severe.'' Feyenoord have already been expelled from this season's UEFA Cup after crowd trouble against Blackburn Rovers and Nancy and many clubs have in the past been ordered to play matches behind closed doors or at neutral venues after crowd trouble.

EARLY TROUBLE Three of the four games went off without major incident, but trouble started early at the 42,000 capacity Felix-Bollaert Stadium where Lille faced United because their own ground does not meet UEFA specifications for European ties.

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