Tuesday, August 17, 2010

UCL PR: Zenit, Rosenborg, Zilina Gain Series-Opening Wins; Young Boys Surprise Spurs; 1-1 Draw For Ajax and Dynamo Kiev

The playoff round for berths in the group stage of the UEFA Champions League commenced on Tuesday with the opening contests of five two-match series.

At Saint Petersburg, Russia:

Aleksandr Karzhakov's goal at 3 minutes held up a Zenit Saint Petersburg took the opening match at home with France's AJ Auxerre 1-0.

At Kiev, Ukraine:

Despite being reduced to ten men, Dynamo Kiev, thanks to Oleh Gusev's goal at 66 minutes, still managed to scratch out a 1-1 home draw in game one with Ajax Amsterdam.  The visitors did get an away goal at 57 minutes from Jan Vertonghen.

At Trondheim, Norway:

Goals from Steffen Iversen (23') and Markus Henriksen (57') enabled Rosenborg to pick up a 2-1 home win in their series opener with FC Copenhagen.  Jesper Gronkjaer's away goal at 84 minutes, though, kept the visiting Lions alive in this two-match set.

At Prague, Czech Republic:

Thanks to goals scored in the second half by Momodou Ceesay (51') and Tomas Oravec (73'), MSK Zilina find themselves 90 minutes away from the group stage following their 2-0 road win in match one against Sparta Prague.

At Bern, Switzerland:

BSC Young Boys raced out to a 3-0 lead after 28 minutes---thanks to goals from Senad Lulic (4'), Henri Bienvenu (13'), and Xavier Hochstrasser (28')---only to see visiting Tottenham Hotspur close the gap with goals from Sebastien Bassong (42') and Roman Pavlyuchenko (83') to close the gap to 3-2 as the game ended, giving the London-based club a fighting chance of winning their two-game set. 

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