Europa League: Spurs Fall; Swans Settle For Home Draw; Red Bulls Too Much For Ajax

The knockout stage of the Europa League commenced on Thursday with the opening game of each of the sixteen Round-of-32 two-match series.

At Ramenskoye, Russia:

The opening match between Belgium's KRC Genk and Anzhi Makhachkala ended in a 0-0 stalemate.

At Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine:

Yevhen Konoplyanka's successful penalty kick in the 81st minute provided the only goal of FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk's 1-0 series-opening home win over Tottenham Hotspur.

At Turin, Italy:

Dani Osvaldo (16') and Paul Pogba (90'+4) each delivered a goal as Juventus blanked visiting Trabzonspor 2-0 in their series opener.

At Odessa, Ukraine:

The opening match between FC Chornomorets Odessa and visiting Lyon concluded in a 0-0 deadlock.

At Esbjerg, Denmark:

Alessandro Matri (9'), Josip Ilicic (15') and Alberto Aquilani (PK-37') each produced a first-half tally as Fiorentina took match one of their two-game sereies with Esbjerg fB 3-1 on the road.

At Nicosia, Cyprus:

In a contest that was moved to Cyprus due to the ongoing rioting in the Ukranian capital, Dynamo Kiev were blanked by Spain's Valencia 2-0.  Eduardo Vargas (79') and Sofiane Feghouli (90'+1) provided the scoring for the Bats.

At Thessaloniki, Greece:

Rodrigo Lima provided the game's lone goal in the 59th minute as SL Benfica took the opening game with PAOK FC 1-0 on the road.

At Liberec, Czech Republic:

Nick Viergever delivered the game's only goal in the 89th minute as AZ Alkmaar blanked FC Slovan Liberec 1-0 on the road in game one of their two-game series.

At Seville, Spain:

Roman Ermenko's successful penalty kick in the 74th minute lifted ten-man Rubin Kazan to a series-opening 1-1 road draw with Real Betis.  Didac Vila scored in the third minute for the Green-and-Whites.

At Swansea, Wales:

Napoli held homestanding Swansea City to a game-one 0-0 draw.

At Maribor, Slovenia:

Goals from Marcos Tavares (33') and Dare Vrsic (81') enabled NK Maribor to salvage a series-opening 2-2 draw with Sevilla.  Kevin Gameiro (47') and Federico Fazio (72') provied the scoring for Los Rojiblancos.

At Plzen, Czech Republic:

Luiz Adriano's equalizer in the 65th minute lifted Shakhtar Donetsk to a series-opening 1-1 road draw with FC Viktoria Plzen.  Stanislav Teci scored in the 62nd minute to give the hosts a short-lived lead.

At Rome:

Roman Bezjak scored the only goal of the match in the 45th minute as PFC Ludogorets Razgrad knocked off Lazio 1-0 on the road in the opening match of their two-game series.

At Amsterdam, Netherlands:

Jonathan Soriano scored twice (PK-14', 35') as FC Red Bull Salzburg took command of their two-game series with Ajax Amsterdam with a series-opening 3-0 road domination, scoring all three of their goals in the first half.

At Tel Aviv, Israel:

Maccabi Tel Aviv and visiting FC Basel battled to a series-opening 0-0 stalemate.

At Porto, Portugal:

Eintracht Frankfurt battled from a two-goal deficit heading into the final twenty minutes of regulation and gained a series-opening 2-2 road draw with FC Porto thanks to goals from Joselu (72') and the hosts Dragons' Alex Sandro (OG-77').  Ricardo Quaresma (45') and Silvestre Varela (68') provided the scoring for the Dragons.