Opening Day Of Knockout Stage Matches In UEFA Cup

Wednesday marked the opening day of the round of 32 (or is it 31) of the 2006-07 UEFA Cup. Until the final this coming May in Glasgow, all rounds from here on our would feature two-game, total goal, home-and -away sets, with away goals counting double. Ten games were played Wednesday. Keep this in mind: Tottenham Hotspur, originally scheduled to play a two-game set against Feyenoord Rotterdam, has been advanced into the round of 16 because of the Dutch club's banishment from the tournament because of crowd trouble in a November contest versus AS Nancy Lorraine.

At Leverkusen, Germany:

Brend Scheider scored the game winner at 56 minutes as Bayer Leverkusen held off visiting Blackburn 3-2. The Rovers' chances of winning this series, though, got a lift when the visitors' Shabani Nonda scored at 86 minutes.

At Tel-Aviv, Israel:

Barukh Dego scored the game winner (76') to lift Hapoel Tel-Aviv to a 2-1 opening-match home win over Rangers, handing the Glasgow club their first defeat in European play this season.

At Leghorn (or is it Livorno), Italy:

Goals from Walter Pandiani (PK-28') and Mohamed El Yaagoubi (59') lifted Espanyol to an important 2-1 road win in their opener against Livorno.

At Istanbul, Turkey:

Goals from Tumer Metin (28', 75') and Tuncay Sanli (67') enabled Fenerbahce to come back from a 3-1 deficit to tie visiting AZ Alkmaar 3-3 in game one of the two clubs' two-game set.

At Donetsk, Ukraine:

Visiting AS Nancy Lorraine and FC Shakhtar Donetsk battled to a 1-1 draw in their series opener. Marc-Antoine Fortune scored (81') to give ASNL a late lead only to see the hosts Darijo Srna equalize(84') .

At Bordeaux, France:

Visiting Osasuna and Bordeaux battled to a 0-0 stalemate in game one of their two-game set.

At Bremen, Germany:

Thanks to goals from Per Mertesacker (48'), Nando (54'), and Torsten Frings (71'), Werder Bremen manhandled visiting Ajax Amsterdam in the two clubs' series opener 3-0.

At Vladikavkas, Russia:

In a match played some 1200 miles south of Moscow, CSKA Moscow had to settle for a 0-0 draw with guests Maccabi Haifa in game one of the clubs' two-game set.

At Lisbon:

Fabrizio Miccoli's game winner (90') lifted SL Benfica to a 1-0 series-opening home victory over Dinamo Bucharst.

At Athens:

Sammy Traore (45'+1)and Bernard Mendy (88') put Paris Saint-Germain in the driver's seat in their two-game set with AEK Athens after the French club's 2-0 road triumph in the opener.