Spiranovic and Vidosic celebrate Nurnberg promotion

Qantas Socceroo pair of Matthew Spiranovic and Dario Vidosic had a good reason to celebrate over the weekend, after their club FC Nurnberg won its way back to the Bundesliga.

Qantas Socceroo pair of Matthew Spiranovic and Dario Vidosic had a good reason to celebrate over the weekend, after their club FC Nurnberg won its way back to the Bundesliga.

After finishing third on the Bundesliga 2 competition, Nurnberg faced a two-legged promotion play-off with Energie Cottbus, who finished 3rd-last in the Bundesliga. Nurnberg easily won through with a 5-0 aggregate win.

While Spiranovic did not play any part in the matches as he returns to fitness after a long lay-off with an ankle injury, Vidosic, who scored vital goals at the vital end of the season, had to be content with a place on the bench for the two games.

The first leg saw Nurnberg effectively end the tie, with a 3-0 away win with Vidosic coming on in the dying stages of the match, but did not see game time in Sunday-s return leg, a 2-0 win in Nurnberg.

The news though was not so good for Michael Petkovic, as Sivasspor saw the Turkish title slip away from them after losing 2-1 at Galatasaray. In the end a win wouldn-t have been good enough as Besiktas won their final game, but it was still a disappointing end to the season for Sivasspor, although they still managed to finish 2nd and earn a place in next season-s Champions League. Harry Kewell played a full game for Galatasaray, as they finished a disappointing 5th.

Meanwhile Mile Jedinak played a full game; James Troisi played 74 minutes, while Bruce Djite came on as Genclerbirligi ended the season disappointingly with a 4-0 home loss that almost saw them relegated. Genclerbirligi managed to survive on their head-to-head results with Denzilspor and Konyaspor and finished 14th.

It was the final weekend of the Italian season, with Mark Bresciano playing a full game in Palermo-s 2-2 draw at home with Sampdoria; finishing a respectable 8th in the Serie A, while in the Serie B, Carl Valeri watched from the bench as Grosseto won 2-1 at home against Frosinone to finish 6th.

Luke Wilkshire played a full game, as Dinamo Moscow won 3-2 away at FK Tom- Tomsk; Ante Covic played a full game, as Elfsborg drew 1-1 away at BK Hacken; Michael Beauchamp remains injured for AaB and has reportedly been told that he is free to leave at the end of the season, while Scott Chipperfield did not play in the final league game of the Swiss season, a 3-0 loss by FC Basel at home against Young Boys.

Finally, it wasn-t a FA Cup fairytale for Tim Cahill, as Everton went down 2-1 to Chelsea, with the Australian midfielder playing a full game (see separate report).