Europa League: Knockout Stage Begins

The knockout stage of the Europa League got under way on Thursday with 16 games, each opening up a Round-of-32 two-match series.

At Saint Petersburg, Russia:

Hulk (69') and Sergei Semak (72') each scored a goal three minutes apart as Zenit Saint Petersburg took the opening match of their two-game series with Liverpool, 2-0 at home.

At Moscow:

Samuel Eto'o (34'), Odil Ahmedov (48'), and Mbark Boussoufa (64') each scored a goal as FC Anzhi Makhachkala got the measure of visiting Hannover 96 3-1 in their series opener.

At Grodno, Belarus:

Fenerbahce gained a 0-0 road draw in their series opener with FC BATE Borisov.

At Valencia, Spain:

Pedro Rios (10'), Jose Barkero (PK-40'), and Obafemi Martins (56') each tallied once as Levante dominated visiting Olympiacos 3-0 in the opening game of their two-contest series.

At Kiev, Ukraine:

Ludovic Obraniak's equalizer in the 23rd minute carried Bordeaux to a 1-1 game-one road draw with Dynamo Kiev.  Lukman Haruna scored at 20 minutes for the hosts.

At Leverkusen, Germany:

Oscar Cardozo's goal in the 61st minute carried SL Benfica to a 1-0 game-one road win over Bayer Leverkusen.

At Amsterdam, Netherlands:

Toby Alderweireld (28') and Ricardo Van Rhijn (48') each delivered a goal for Ajax Amsterdam as the hosts blanked Steaua Bucharest 2-0 in the opening match of their two-game series.

At Prague, Czech Republic:

Oscar scored the only goal in the 82nd minute of Chelsea's 1-0 game-one road win over Sparta Prague.

At Naples, Italy:

Vladimir Darida (28'), Frantisek Rajtoral (79'), and Stanislav Tecl (90') each scored a goal as FC Viktoria Plzen dominated Napoli 3-0 on the road in game one of their two-match series.

At Milan, Italy:

Rodrigo Palacio scored both goals (20', 87') of Inter Milan's game-one 2-0 home blanking of CFR Cluj.

At Newcastle upon Tyne, England:

FC Metalist Kharkiv held homestanding Newcastle United to a game-one 0-0 stalemate.

At Stuttgart, Germany:

Glynor Plet's late equalizer (90'+1) lifted KRC Genk to a series-opening 1-1 road draw with VfB Stuttgart.  Christian Gentner scored for the hosts in the 42nd minute.

At Madrid:

Gokdeniz Karadeniz (6') and Pablo Orbdaiz (90'+5) delivered the scoring that staked Rubin Kazan to a series-opening 2-0 road win over Atletico Madrid.

At Basel, Switzerland:

Valentin Stocker (23') and Marco Streller (67') provided the scoring as FC Basel blanked visiting FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk 2-0 in game one of their two-match series.

At Monchengladbach, Germany:

Libor Kozak scored twice (64', 90'+4) as Lazio came back to gain a 3-3 road draw in their series opener with Borussia Monchengladbach.  The Foals got successful penalty kicks courtesy of Martin Stanzl (17') and Thorben Marx (84') while Juan Arango scored the go-ahead goal in the 88th minute, before Libor Kozak's equalizer in stoppage-time gave the Young Eagles their third away goal.

At London:

Gareth Bale scored twice (45', 90'+3) as Tottenham Hotspur to game one of their two-match series with Lyon 2-1.  Samuel Umtiti kept the French club alive in the series with his 55th-minute tally.