Football: Barcelona held

SPARTAK MOSCOW staged an impressive comeback to rob Barcelona of victory in their European Champions' League match in Moscow yesterday. The game ended in a 2-2 draw after the Russians scored twice in the last 13 minutes.

Barcelona looked to have won the game after their Bulgarian forward, Hristo Stoichkov, and his Brazilian colleague, Romario, had scored simple goals in the 10th and 66th minutes against a Spartak side short of match practice.

The Russians reduced the arrears in the 77th minute when the Barcelona goalkeeper, Andoni Zubizarreta, fumbled a cross into the path of Sergei Rodionov, who made no mistake from eight yards out. With just two minutes left Valery Karpin equalised with the best goal of the night, shooting home after Igor Ledyakhov had chested down the ball into his path.

In the Uefa Cup, Karlsruhe secured a 1-1 draw away to Boavista in the first leg of their quarter-final tie. Boavista's Nigerian striker, Ricky Owubikiri, headed the home side into a 38th-minute lead, but Karlsruhe equalised in the 77th minute with a fierce shot by their defender, Michael Wittwer.