Europa League Playoff Round

The opening week of the playoff round for berth in the group stage of the Europa League continued with  30 games played on Thursday.

At Moscow:

Lacina Traore scored the only goal of the match as FC Anzhi Makhachkala defeated visiting AZ Alkmaar 1-0 in the opening game of their two-match series.

At Baku, Azerbaijan:

Selim Benachour's equalizer in the 84th minute lifted APOEL FC to a 1-1 series-opening road draw with Neftchi Baku.  Mahir Shukurov had converted a penalty kick in the 82nd minute to give the Azerbaijani club a short-lived lead.

At Tromso, Norway:

Aleksandar Prijovic (37'), Fredrik Bjorck (77'), and Kara Mbodj (82') each scored once as Tromso IL held off Partizan Belgrade 3-2 in the two clubs' series opener.  Sasa Markovic (43') and Aleksandar Mirovic (84') each scored a goal as the Serbian club remained alive in the two-match series.

At Vilnius, Lithuania:

Novak Martinovic (36') and Adrian Popa (76') each tallied once as Steaua Bucharest defeated Ekranus 2-0 on the road in their series opener.

At Athens:

Ryan Taylor's equalizer (45'+2) carried Newcastle United to a series opening 1-1 draw on the road with Atromitros.  Denis Epstein scored for the hosts in the 24th minute.

At Molde, Norway:

With Magnus Eikrem (31') and Mattias Mostrom (90') providing the scoring, Molde blanked visiting SC Heerenveen 2-0 in the opening match of their two-game series.

At Tiraspol, Moldova:

Jordan Ayew scored twice (18', 53') as Marseille topped FC Sheriff 2-1 on the road in game one.

At Solna, Sweden:

Keisuke Honda scored the only goal of the match in the 61st minute as CSKA Moscow knocked off AIK Solna 1-0 on the road in the opening match of their two-game set.

At Warsaw, Poland:

Borek Dockal's equalizer in the 80th minute lifted Rosenborg to a series-opening 1-1 road deadlock with Legia Warsaw.  Jakub Kosecki scored for the hosts in the 42nd minute.

At Liberec, Czech Republic:

Lukas Vacha's successful penalty kick in the 90th minute, along with Michal Breznanik's earlier tally (62'), enabled Slovan Liberec to come back from a two-goal deficit and salvage a series-opening 2-2 home draw with Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk.  Yevhen Konoplyanka (43') and Matheus Leite Nascimento (49') each tallied once for the visiting Ukrainian club.

At Bucharest, Romania:

Cleiton Xavier (9') and Jonathan Cristaldo (57') delivered the goal power that carried FC Metalist Kharkiv to a series-opening 2-0 road win over Dinamo Bucharest.

At Bursa, Turkey:

Pablo Batalla scored twice (40', 82') as Bursaspor defeated visiting FC Twente 3-1.

At Lucerne, Switzerland:

Dimitar Rangelov (7') and Adrian Winter (71') provided the scoring that enabled FC Lucerne to top visiting KRC Genk 2-1 in game one.  Jelle Vossen's goal in the 12th minute kept the Belgian club alive in their two-game series.

At Trabzon, Turkey:

The opening match between Trabzonspor and visiting Videoton FC concluded in a 0-0 stalemate.

At Differdange, Luxembourg:

Goals from Tal Ben Haim II (PK-19') and Alroey Cohen (26') helped Hapoel Tel Aviv down F91 Dudelange 3-1 on the road in the opening contest of their two-game series.

At Rotterdam, Netherlands:

Miguel Nelom (60') and Anass Achabar (90'+3) each scored once as Feyenoord Rotterdam battled back from a two-goal deficit and salvaged a series-opening 2-2 home draw with Sparta Prague.  Vaclav Kadlec scored both of the Czech club's goals in the first half-hour (23', 27').

At Herning, Denmark:

Raul Bobadilla (42'), Alexander Farnerud (81'), and Moreno Costanzo (90'+3) each scored a goal as BSC Young Boys all but locked up a group-stage berth with their 3-0 series-opening road domination of FC Midtjylland.

At Nyiregyhaza, Hungary:

Club Brugge, with Jonathan Blondel (58'), Lior Refaelov (77'), and Carlos Bacca (90'+1) providing the goals, blanked Debreceni VSC 3-0 in the opening game of their two-match series.

At Brussels, Belgium:

Mijat Maric providing the game-winning penalty kick in second-half stoppage time (90'+4) as KSC Lokoren, also helped by Hamdi Harbaoui's earlier goal (10') topped visiting FC Viktoria Plzen 2-1 in their series opener.  The Czech club remained alive in the two-game series, thanks to Marek Bakos' goal in the 29th minute.

At Thessaloniki, Greece:

Stefanos Athanasiadis (69') and Giorgos Katsikas (83') each scored a goal as PAOK FC came from behind to overtake visiting Rapid Vienna 2-1 in match one.  Deni Alar kept the Austrian club alive in the two-game series with his goal in the 25th minute.

At Piatra Neamt, Romania:

Inter Milan, with Esteban Cambiasso (23') and Rodrigo Palacio (73') each contributing a goal, took control of their two-game series with FC Vaslui with their series-opening 2-0 road triumph.

At Edinburgh, Scotland:

Andy Webster's own goal in the 78th minute carried Liverpool to a series-opening 1-0 road win over Heart of Midlothian.

At Wroclaw, Poland:

Leon Andreasen scored twice (7', 82') as Hannover 96 took the measure of Slask Wroclaw 5-3 on the road in game one of their two-match series.

At Motherwell, Scotland:

Juanlu (42') and Nabil El Zhar (62') provided the scoring as Levante blanked home-standing Motherwell in game one 2-0.

At Bilbao, Spain:

Aritz Aduriz (25', 51') and Markel Susaeta (31', 57') each scored twice, once in each half, the latter's tally on each occasion six minutes after the former's, helped guide Athletic Bilbao to a 6-0 home demolition of HJK Helsinki.

At Funchal, Portugal:

Philipe Fidelis scored the only goal of the match in the 64th minute as CS Maritimo defeated visiting Dila Gori 1-0 in the opening contest of their two-game series.

At Horsens, Denmark:

Andre Carrillo's equalizer in the 79th minute carried Sporting CP to a series-opening 1-1 road deadlock with AC Horsens.  Martin Spelmann scored for the Danish club in the 15th minute.

At Belgrade, Serbia:

The series opener between Red Star Belgrade and visiting Bordeaux ended in a 0-0 stalemate.

At Maribor, Slovenia:

With Hernanes (31') and Miroslav Klose (59') each tallying once, Lazio took control of their two-game series with ND Mura 05 with a game-one 2-0 road win.

At Podgorica, Montenegro:

Ola Toivonen (2'), Tim Matavz (74'), Kevin Strootman (77'), Jeremain Lens (83'), and Mark Van Bommel (90') each delivered a goal as PSV Eindhoven converted a match that was a 1-0 contest after 70 minutes into a 5-0 game-one road annihilation of FK Zeta and all but clinched a berth in the group stage in the process.