Schalke's Ebbe Sand scored a hat trick and Newcastle's Patrick Kluivert hit two on Thursday as the favored teams in the UEFA Cup took big strides toward the second round.
Lazio scored a 3-0 victory in Ukraine, Germany's Schalke won 5-1, and VfB Stuttgart won 3-1 on the road.
Hired from FC Barcelona, Dutch star Kluivert scored after only four minutes against Israel's Hapoel Bnei Sachnin, an Arab-owned team coached by an Israeli, and added a second four minutes before halftime.
Although the 2-0 scoreline against such a modest opponent didn't really please the Magpies fans at St. James' Park, it meant that new manager Graeme Souness, who took over from the fired Bobby Robson a week ago, has seen his team win two games in a row after failing to win any of its first five.
One sour note was the ejections of Newcastle's Nicky Butt and Hapoel's Abas Soan for a second half flareup.
On a good night for the Bundesliga, Schalke scored an easy 5-1 victory over Latvia's Liepajas Metalurgs while Stuttgart won 3-1 at Hungary's Ujpest and Alemannia Aachen won 5-1 at Iceland's FH Hafnarfjordur with Kai Michalke scoring twice in the first 14 minutes. Division two Alemannia qualified by reaching the final of the German Cup.
Massimo Maccarone, back in Italian soccer after a disappointing spell with Middlesbrough, scored twice in Parma's 3-2 beating of Slovenia's Maribor and set up the third for Marco Marchionni.
No longer with the bald striker on the roster, Middlesbrough celebrated its debut in European soccer with a 3-0 beating of Banik Ostrava of the Czech Republic. Australian striker Mark Viduka scored two and another summer signing, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, added the other. Viduka has scored five goals in four games since his move from Leeds United, and Hasselbaink, signed from Chelsea, has four.
Veteran England midfielder Dennis Wise fired Millwall into the lead with a free kick against 20-time and defending Hungarian champion Ferencvaros, only for Peter Lipcsei to reply for the visitor to the New Den in a 1-1 draw.
Millwall, from the second tier League Championship, earned its place as runner-up to Manchester United in last season's FA Cup final.
On a mixed night for Italian clubs, Lazio scored a 3-0 victory at Ukraine's Metalurh Donetsk with all three goals coming in the last 17 minutes through Tommaso Rocchi, Brazilian defender Rodriguez Cesar and Macedonian forward Goran Pandev.
But Udinese went down 3-1 at Greek club Panionios with Panagiotis Giannopoulos scoring twice for the Athens team.
Substitute Glen Fitzpatrick headed two goals in three minutes late in the game as Ireland's Shelbourne hit back from 2-0 down to gain a 2-2 draw with French club Lille.
Japanese midfielder Shinji Ono scored in the 74th minute to give Dutch league leaders Feyenoord, the UEFA Cup winner three seasons ago, a 1-0 victory over Norway's Odd Grenland.
Villarreal, the semifinalist in last year's UEFA Cup, edged Hammarby of Stockholm 2-1 after taking a 2-0 lead just 23 minutes into the first-leg match.
UEFA announced a new anti-doping program Thursday in an effort to step up its fight against drugs in soccer.
Speaking to journalists after a two-day meeting of its Executive Committee, UEFA chief executive Lars-Christer Olsson said the new program would allow an increase in the quantity and frequency of doping tests carried out during competitions sanctioned by the organization, including at youth level and in women's soccer.
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