Valencia goalie Palop after conceding the last penalty on Thursday. (AFP)

London: Former European champions Steaua Bucharest stunned Uefa Cup holders Valencia, ousting the Spanish champions out of the competition in penalty shootout on Thursday.

The defeat has paved way for Claudio Ranieri?s ouster as he was sacked following a board meeting on Friday.

Apart from Parma?s 2-0 victory in Germany over VfB Stuttgart to se-nd the Italians through, it was a bad night for former winn-ers with Schalke 04, Ajax Amsterdam and Feyenoord all going out.

Sporting, whose Alvalade Stadium in Lisbon will host the final on May 18, had their victory over Feyenoord overshadowed by crowd disturbances in Rotterdam which twice halted the match.

Uefa sanctions are likely to be imposed on the Dutch club after Sporting goalkeeper Ricardo was hit by a firework in the first half which brought a five-minute delay.

Referee Florian Meyer then took the players off for 20 minutes in the second half after Sporting?s Rui Jorge had been struck by an object thrown from the crowd following Liedson?s goal. Sporting won the match 2-1 to go through 4-2 on aggregate.

Valencia took a two-goal lead to Romania but were pegged back by two second-half strikes from midfielder Andrei Cristea, restored to the starting line-up by Italian coach Walter Zenga at the behest of the club?s main shareholder Gigi Becali.

?I was right when asking for Cristea to play from the start,? Becali told reporters. ?I paid a lot of money for him so I think I?m permitted to ask the coach (Zenga) to allow my favourite player to start a match.?

With no goals in extra time, it took a miss by Italian striker Marco Di Vaio to hand the Romanians a 4-3 win in the tie-breaker.

Steaua will now take on another Spanish side Villarreal in the last 16 after last season?s semi-finalists overcame Dynamo Kiev.

Marco Marchionni and Andrea Pisanu struck in extra time to send Parma through to a meeting with Sevilla, who went through thanks to a stoppage-time goal from Adriano that sealed a 2-1 aggregate victory over Panathinaikos.

Parma, twice Uefa winners in the 1990s, had been reduced to 10 men late in normal time after Paolo Cannavaro?s two-footed foul on Stuttgart?s Kevin Kuranyi.

But Marchionni struck eight minutes into the first half of extra time after twice exchanging passes with Alberto Gilardino. Pisanu added the second in the 117th minute, following up on the rebound after Timo Hildebrand could only palm away a Simplicio shot.

AJ Auxerre?s long-serving coach Guy Roux described his side?s 3-1 victory over Ajax, for a 3-2 win over the two legs, as ?more than a miracle?.

Bonaventure Kalou open-ed the scoring for Auxerre and Benoit Cheyrou put them back in front after youngster Ryan Babel had equalised for Ajax shortly before the break.

Meanwhile, Ajax manager Ronald Koeman has quit following the defeat, the Dutch champions said Friday. Ajax are in third place in the Dutch first division, eight points behind league leaders PSV Eindhoven. (Reuters)