Former champions Bayern Munich of Germany and Ajax Amsterdam of
the Netherlands started their UEFA Cup campaigns with respective
1-0 wins in Thursday's first round first leg matches.
Italy striker Luca Toni scored the lone goal for Bayern against
Belenenses in the 34th minute, a result put Belenenses in belief to
play against the four-times European champions in the second leg in
Portugal in two weeks.
Bundesliga rivals Bayer Leverkusen fared better in another
Germany/Portugal clash, beating Uniao Leiria 3-1 at home.
Ajax won at Dynamo Zagreb as Dennis Rommedahl beat keeper
GeorgKoch to score the winner from a pass by strike partner Klaas
Jan Huntelaar just after the hour mark.
However, English Premier League clubs had mixed fortunes.
Tottenham Hotspur dumped Anorthosis Famagusta of Cyprus 6-1 at
White Hart Lane, Everton striker Andy Johnson missed two penalties
in a 1-1 home draw with Ukraine's Metalist Kharkiv, who finished
with nine men.
Blackburn Rovers lost 2-0 at Larissa while Bolton Wanderers,
bottom of the Premier League, drew 1-1 at Rabotnicki Skopje of
Macedonia.
Spurs killed their match with three goals in three minutes just
before the break, with Michael Dawson, Robbie Keane and Darren Bent
setting up a victory that will almost certainly put them into the
group stage.
Greece had a particularly good night as its five sides,
including AEK Athens and Panathinaikos, all won.
In other games, Luis Garcia scored twice for Atletico Madrid in
a 4-0 rout of Turkey's Erciyesspor, Spartak Moscow scored a 5-0 win
over Sweden's Haecken, and another former European champions Red
Star Belgrade won 1-0 at Groclin Grodzisk of Poland.
(Xinhua News Agency September 21, 2007)