Real Zaragoza claimed a precious away victory at the expense of Turkish champions Fenerbahce on Thursday to give themselves an excellent chance of qualifying for the last 16 of the UEFA Cup.<br /><br />The visiting Spaniards scored the only goal of the match in the second half through the unlikely source of Brazilian Alvaro Maior de Aquino.<br /><br />It ensures they will hold a narrow lead over the Turks when the clubs meet in Spain next Thursday in the second leg of this round-of-32 tie, but perhaps they will yet live to rue the fact they could not get the second goal their play merited.<br /><br />In the early stages Fenerbahce were in charge with Zaragoza defending in numbers as they looked to counter the Turkish threat.<br /><br />However, the first real chance of the match fell the way of the Primera Liga club.<br /><br />David Generelo fired in a dangerous shot which clipped the post of the goal defended by Rustu Recber.<br /><br />Next it was the turn of Alvaro to go close for the visitors with Rustu pulling off an important save for the hosts.<br /><br />At the end of the first-half the crowd at the Sukru Saracoglu Stadium appealed for a penalty when Nicolas Anelka challenged for a ball with Gabriel Milito and the ball appeared to strike the hand of the Argentinian but the pleas were turned down by Danish referee Nicolai Vollquartz.<br /><br />In the second half the play continued to ebb and flow and after an hour Zaragoza almost scored when Luciano Galletti fed Generolo who forced another brilliant save from Rustu.<br /><br />With 11 minutes remaining Zaragoza's pressure paid off as they took the lead.<br /><br />Galletti appeared to be fouled by the Fenerbahce defenders but Alvaro picked up the ball and crashed his shot past a helpless Rustu.<br /><br />It was the first goal the Brazilian had scored since the opening day of the Primera Liga season.<br /><br />A spate of late bookings for Fenerbahce in the closing 20 minutes showed how frustrated they were becoming but there was no way back for Christoph Daum's men.<br /> <br /> <small>[ 18. February 2005, 05:40 AM: Message edited by: imparator_fatih_terim ]</small>