Europa League: FC Twente, Leverkusen, Ajax, Dynamo Kiev, Benfica, CSKA Moscow Take Series Openers

Fifteen two-game series opened on Thursday as the opening week of group stage play in the Europa League came to a climax.

At Moscow:

In a contest moved from Kazan due to severe winter conditions, Luuk de Jong (77') and Peter Wisgerhof (88') provided the late goal power as FC Twente defeated FK Rubin Kazan 2-0 in the opening contest of their two-game total-goals series.

At Kharkiv, Ukraine:

Sidney Sam scored twice at the death (90', 90'+2) as Bayern Leverkusen ransacked hosts FC Metalist Kharkiv 4-0 in game one.

At Naples, Italy:

The opening match between Napoli and visiting Villarreal ended in a 0-0 stalemate.

At Brussels, Belgium:

Toby Alderweireld (33'), Christian Eriksen (59'), and Mounir El Hamdaoui (67') each delivered a goal as Ajax Amsterdam dominted the opening game of their two-match series with RSC Anderlecht, beating the Belgian club 3-0 on the road.

At Poznan, Poland:

Artjoms Rudnevs scored the only goal of the match at 72 minutes as Lech Poznan blanked visiting Sporting Braga 1-0 in the opening match of their two-game set.

At Istanbul, Turkey:

Ognjen Vukojevic (27'), Andriy Shevchenko (50'), Aylila Yussuf (57'), and Oleg Gusey (PK-90') each tallied once as Dynamo Kiev placed themselves 45 minutes from the Round of 16 with an impressive 4-1 series-opening road win over Besiktas.

At Lisbon, Portugal:

Franco Jara scored the game winner at 81 minutes as SL Benfica came from behind to nip visiting VfL Stuttgart 2-1 in game one of their two-game series.

At Minsk, Belarus:

Thanks to goals from Mevlut Erding (30') and Peguy Luyindula (89'), Paris Saint-Germain have a real shot of winning their two-game series with BATE Borisov following their 2-2 road draw.  Renan Bressan (16') and Mikhail Gordeychuk (81') each tallied once for the Belorussian club.

At Glasgow, Scotland:

Matias Fernandez's equalizer at 89 minutes enabled Sporting to gain a 1-1 road draw with Rangers in the opening game of their two-match Round of 32 series.  Steven Whittaker scored at 65 minutes for 'Gers.

At Prague, Czech Republic:

The opening contest between Sparta Prague and visiting Liverpool ended in a 0-0 deadlock.

At Basel, Switzerland:

Dmitri Kombarov (60'), Artem Dzjuba (70'), and Zhano Ananidze (90'+3) delivered the goalpower that allowed Spartak Moscow to erase a two-goal deficit and knock off FC Basel 3-2 on the road in game one of their two-match set.

At Bern, Switzerland:

Emmanuel Mayuka scored the game-winning goal in second-half stoppage time (90'+4) as BSC Young Boys came from behind to defeat visiting Zenit Saint Petersburg 2-1 in game one.  Senad Lulic also scored for the Young Boys at 45 minutes, while Nicolas Lombaerts scored for Zenit at 19 minutes to keep the Russian club in the series.

At Thessaloniki, Greece:

Tomas Necid scored the lone goal of the match at 29 minutes as CSKA Moscow took game one of their two-game series with PAOK Salonika 1-0 on the road.

At Seville, Spain:

Fredy Guarin scored the game-winning goal at 85 minutes as FC Porto took their series opener on the road over Sevilla 2-1.

At Villeneuve-d'Ascq, France:

Wilfred Bouma and Ola Toivonen each scored a goal at 84 minutes as PSV Eindhoven came back from two goals down to gain a 2-2 series-opening road draw with LOSC Lille Metropole.  Idrissa Gana Gueye (6') and Vinicius Tulio De Melo (30') each tallied once for the Mastiffs.