Europa League Playoff Round: Potters, Cottagers, Spurs Take Series Openers; Brumbies Hold CD Nacional To Scoreless Home Draw

The playoff round for berths in the Europa League group stage got under way on Thursday.


At Warsaw, Poland:


Legia Warsaw were held to a 2-2 opening-match home draw by Spartak Moscow.  Legia's Miroslav Radovic (3', 69') and Spartak's Ari (52', 71') each scored twice.


At Panevezys, Lithuania:


Mantas Samusiovas scored the only goal of the match at 82 minutes as Ekranas took the opening game of their two-match series with Hapoel Tel Aviv 1-0 at home.


At Moscow:


Renat Vanbaev (34') and Maicon (37') each scored a goal three minutes apart as Lokomotiv Moscow blanked visiting Spartak Trnava.


At Piatra Neamt, Romania:


With Mike Temwanjera (13') and Zhivko Milanov (36') tallying, FC Vaslui blanked visiting Sparta Prague 2-0 in game one.


At Tbilisi, Georgia:


In  a high-scoring series opener, Club Brugge, thanks to three away goals, will have the advantage heading back to Belgium for the return match next Thursday following their 3-3 draw with Zetafoni. Joseph Akpala (27'), Lior Refaelov (30'), and Carl Hoefkens (72') each scored once for the visitors while Nikoloz Galashvili scored twice (59', 83') for the Georgian club.


At Helsinki, Finland:


Teemu Pukki scored both goals (18', 54') as HJK Helsinki blanked visiting Schalke 2-0 in their series opener.


At Lovech, Bulgaria:


Ideye Brown scored the game winner in the 77th minute as Dynamo Kiev topped Litex Lovech 2-1 on the road in the opening contest of their two-game series.


At Poltava, Ukraine:


Pavlo Rebenok scored the game winner at 89 minutes as FC Vorskla Poltava defeated visiting Dinamo Bucharest 2-1 in their series opener.  The visiting Red Dogs remained alive in the series thanks to Marius Niculae's away goal at 58 minutes.


At Alesund, Norway:


Michael Barrantes' double (PK-14', 73') carried Aalesund to a 2-1 series-opening home win over AZ Alkmaar.  Maarten Martens scored what might still could prove to be a precious away goal for the Dutch club in the 30 minute.


At Nicosia, Cyprus:


Freddy (35') and Leonardo (45'+3) scored late in the first half as Omonia came from behind to defeat visiting FC Red Bull Salzburg 2-1 in game one.  Alan's away goal at 3 minutes kept the Austrian club alive in the series.


At Vienna, Austria:


Nacer Barazite scored twice (45', 61') as Austria Vienna defeated visiting CS Gas Metan Medias 3-1 in game one.


At Tel Aviv, Israel:


Elran Atar scored twice (PK-67, 90') as Maccabi Tel Aviv delivered a game-one 3-0 home beatdown on Panathinaikos.


At Cluj-Napoca, Romania:


Steaua Bucharest blanked visiting CSKA Sofia 2-0 in match one.  George Galamaz (16') and Leandro Tatu (77') provided the scoring for the club from the Romanian capital.


At Thun, Switzerland:


Danny Pugh scored the lone goal of the match as Stoke City knocked off FC Thun 1-0 in the opening match of their two-contest series.


At Istanbul, Turkey:


Tomas Sivok (20'), Guti (PK-76'), and Hugo Almeida (89') each provided a goal as Besiktas dominated visiting FC Alania Vladikavkas 3-0 in game one.


At Bursa, Turkey:


RSC Anderlecht, with goals courtesy of Jonathan Legear (PK-53') and Milan Jovanovic (77'), came from behind to upend Bursaspor 2-1 on the road in match one.


At Thessaloniki, Greece:


With Stefanos Athanasiadis (15') and Lino (56') providing the tallies, PAOK FC shut out visiting FC Karpaty Lviv 2-0 in the opening match of their two-legged series.


At Farum, Denmark:


The opening match between Sporting Club of Portugal and hosts FC Nordsjaelland ended in a 0-0 stalemate.


At Wroclaw, Poland:


Nicolae Grigore (24'), Mihai Herea (34'), and Iulian Apostal (79') each scored a goal as Rapid Bucharest knocked off WKS Slask Wroclaw 3-1 on the road in game one.


At Liege, Belgium:


Mohamed Tchite provided the lone goal of the match at 60 minutes as Standard Liege downed visiting Helsingborg 1-0 in game one.


At Kharkiv, Ukraine:


FC Sochaux held hosts FC Metalist Kharkiv to a 0-0 game-one stalemate.


At London:


Clint Dempsey scored twice (43', 49') as Fulham dominated visiting Dnipro 3-0 in their series opener.


At Hanover, Germany:


Jan Schlaudraff scored twice (6', 45') as Hannover 96 held off visiting Sevilla 2-1 in game one.  The Spanish club received what could still turn out to be a precious away goal courtesy of Frederic Kanoute at 37 minutes.


At Belgrade, Serbia:


Jonathan Pitroipa (41') and Victor Montano (75') provided the scoring as Rennes came from behind to nip hosts Red Star Belgrade 2-1 in game one.


At Dublin, Ireland:


Gary McCabe's equalizer in the 81st minutes salvaged a 1-1 home draw for Shamrock Rovers in the opening match with Partizan Belgrade.  Nemanja Tomic scored at 14 minutes for the visiting Serbian club.


At Trondheim, Norway:


AEK Larnaca battled home-standing Rosenborg to a 0-0 match-one deadlock.


At Bratislava, Slovakia:


Martin Dobrotka scored the lone goal of the match at 80 minutes as Slovan Bratislava defeated visiting AS Roma 1-0 in the opening contest of their two-game series.


At Luxembourg City, Luxembourg:


Kevin Gameiro (17'), Jean-Christophe Bahebeck (71'), Ceara (90'), and Jeremy Menez (90'+1) each tallied once as Paris Saint-Germain demolished FC Differdange 03 4-0 on the road in game one.  The club from Luxembourg replaced the disqualified Olympiacos Volou as playoff-round opponents for PSG.


At Edinburgh, Scotland:


Rafael van der Vaart (5'), Jermain Defoe (13'), Jake Livermore (28'), Gareth Bale (63'), and Aaron Lennon (78') each tallied once as Tottenham Hotspur virtually locked up a berth in the group stage following their 5-0 match-one road demolition of Heart of Midlothian.


At Maribor, Slovenia:


Agim Ibraimi (52') and Etien Velikonja (90'+2) provided the goals as Maribor came from behind to upend visiting Rangers 2-1 in their series opener.


At Funchal, Portugal:


Birmingham City held hosts CD Nacional to a 0-0 deadlock in the opening contest of their two-game series.


At Athens, Greece:


Jose Carlos scored the lone goal of the match in the 87th minute as AEK Athens blanked visiting Dinamo Tbilisi 1-0 in game one.


At Bilbao, Spain:


The opening match between Athletic Bilbao and visiting Trabzonspor ended in a 0-0 stalemate.


At Rome:


Djibril Cisse's double (51', 65') was part of an offensive barrage that carried Lazio to an easy 6-0 pasting of visiting FK Rabotnicki in the opening round of their two-game series.


At Glasgow, Scotland:


FC Sion held hosts Celtic to a 0-0 game-one deadlock.


At Ried im Innkreis, Austria:


SV Ried and visiting PSV Eindhoven battled to a 0-0 opening-match draw.


At Madrid:


Elias came off the bench to score both goals (68', 73') as Atletico Madrid blanked visiting Vitoria SC 2-0 in game one.


At Braga, Portugal:


A 0-0 deadlock marked the opening contest between Sporting Braga and visiting BSC Young Boys.