Wednesday, August 21, 2013

UEFA Champions League Playoff Round: Road Wins For Gunners, Austria Vienna, FC Basel; Legia and PAOK Battle Back To Gain Road Draws

The opening week of the playoff round for UEFA Champions League group-stage berths concluded with five games.

At Zagreb, Croatia:

Marin Leovac (68') and Marko Stankovic (75') each scored a goal as Austria Vienna knocked off Dinamo Zagreb 2-0 on the road in match one of the clubs' two-game series.

At Sofia, Bulgaria:

Mohamed Salah scored twice (12', 59') as FC Basel upended hosts Ludogorets Razgrad 4-2 in their series opener.

At Bucharest, Romania:

Jabuk Koseci's equalizer in the 53rd minute carried Legia Warsaw to a 1-1 series-opening road draw with Steaua Bucharest.  Federico Piovaccari scored for the hosts in the 34th minute.

At Gelsenkirchen, Germany:

Miroslav Stoch scored in the 73rd minute to carry PAOK FC to a series-opening 1-1 road draw with Schalke.  Jefferson Farfan scored for the Royal Blues in the 32nd minute.

At Istanbul, Turkey:

Shaking off the effects from their domestic league season-opening home embarrassment at the hands of Aston Villa, Arsenal---with goals from Kieran Gibbs (51'), Aaron Ramsey (64'), and Olivier Giroud (PK-77')---converted what had been a scoreless stalemate into a series-opening 3-0 road domination of Fenerbahce.

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