UCL Playoff Round: Hopoel Tel Aviv Gets Road Win; Werder, Braga, Basel Win Series Openers At Home; 2-2 Deadlock In Serbia Between Partizan and Anderlecht

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

At Salzburg, Austria:

Vincent Enyeama (PK-3'), Ben Sahar (44'), and Etay Shechter (53') each scored a goal as Hapoel Tel Aviv defeated Red Bull Salzburg 3-2 on the road in the opening match of their two-game series.

At Basel, Switzerland:


Valentin Stocker scored the only goal of the match at 54 minutes as FC Basel defeated visiting FC Sheriff 1-0 in game one.


At Belgrade, Serbia:


RSC Anderlecht gained a 2-2 road draw in their series opener with Partizan Belgrade.  The hosts' goals came from Cleo (57') and Jan Lecjaks (OG-64') while the visiting Belgian club got their scores from Guillaume Gillet (54') and Roland Juhasz (66').


At Braga, Portugal:


A goal in the second half from Matheus (62') carried SC Braga to a 1-0 game-one win at home over Sevilla.


At Bremen, Germany:


Werder Bremen, with goals courtesy of Clemens Fritz (51') , Torsten Frings (PK-67') , and Claudio Pizzaro (69'), topped visiting Sampdoria 3-1 in the series opener between the clubs.  Giampaolo Pazzini, with a goal at 90 minutes, gave the visiting Italian club some hope going into next Tuesday's return match at Genoa.