Middlesbrough will have to do their work at the Riverside if they are to reach their first European final after going down 1-0 to Steaua Bucharest in their Uefa Cup semi-final first leg clash in Romania.

Midfielder Nicolae Dica grabbed the winner on 30 minutes, turning smartly on the edge of the area and blasting home past Mark Schwarzer.

But the Middlesbrough keeper kept his side in contention with two fine saves early in the second half, one a fierce volley from Dorin Goian and the other a close-range Dica effort.

The visitors, missing injured striker Mark Viduka and captain Gareth Southgate, created few chances, but will be happy to have kept the scoreline down ahead of next Thursday's second leg.

Should they manage to turn the tie around next week Boro will meet either Schalke 04 of Germany or Spain's Sevilla, who drew 0-0 tonight.

Despite the defeat stand-in Middlesbrough captain Ugo Ehiogu insists the final is still within their grasp.

Ehiogu, captain in place of the injured Gareth Southgate, told Five: "It's only a 1-0 deficit, we know we can score goals at home.

"It's difficult when you're carrying a few injuries, we had to dig in at times.

"When we come back a week today, hopefully we'll have a few players back and we'll give them a good game.

"We're a goal down, we need a clean sheet and we know we can create chances, we've just got to be able to finish them," the former England defender said.

Midfielder George Boateng was even more upbeat than Ehiogu. "I think before the game if you'd said 1-0 we would have taken it," said the Dutchman.

"It could have been better but we've got a feeling of how they are and we've been in much more difficult positions. We can still get something out of it.

"You can't say it's going to be easy but we're very confident."