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Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk still unbeaten

Schalke's Levan Kobiashvili, left, battles Ferencvaros Budapest's Marek Penska during their UEFA Cup Group A match at the Arena AufSchalke in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, Thursday. Schalke took the lead in Group A with a 2-0 win in the match. PHOTO: AP

Newcastle and Ukrainian club Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk maintained their 100 percent records in the UEFA Cup group phase on Thursday to virtually guarantee a place in the knockout stage.

Newcastle won 4-0 at Sochaux and Dnipro beat Austria Vienna 1-0 for their third straight wins. But Stuttgart was upset 1-0 by lowly Hereenveen and Middlesbrough lost 2-0 at Villarreal to suffer their first group phase defeats, while Italian clubs Parma and Lazio are on the verge of elimination after the third rotation.

Lazio drew 2-2 with Partizan Belgrade to be fourth in Group E, while Parma, the 1999 UEFA Cup champion, lost 2-1 to Standard Liege to be bottom of Group B.

Sixteen matches were scheduled Thursday in Europe's second-tier club competition. In the inaugural group stage, 40 clubs were divided into eight groups of five, with each club playing two home and two away games and the schedule decided randomly. The top three in each group join the eight clubs eliminated from the Champions League in the knockout stage.

Nikos Kostenoglou, left, of AEK Athens, tries to stop Matt Moussilou of Lille during their UEFA Cup match at the Olympic Stadium in Athens on Thursday. PHOTO: AP

Newcastle won easily at Sochaux off goals from Lee Bowyer, Shola Ameobi, Craig Bellamy and Laurent Robert. Sochaux striker Jeremy Matthieu missed a penalty in the 63rd minute.

Sporting Lisbon also had a 4-0 win in Group D. Liedson scored a hat trick to lift the Portuguese side over Dinamo Tbilisi.

Newcastle has nine points, Sporting six, Sochaux three and Tbilisi and Panionios zero.

"We are in a fantastic position," Newcastle manager Graeme Souness said. "We saw this as our hardest game in the competition in this group stage and it sets us up very nicely."

In Group G, Ugur Yildirim hit the winner for Heerenveen's first victory of the group stage. Yildirim whacked the ball in from 10m on 65 minutes after Stuttgart defender Boris Zivkovic sent a dubious defensive header across his own penalty box.

In Lisbon, Tomo Sokota scored against his former club and Simao Sabrosa netted a penalty to give Benfica a 2-0 win over Dinamo Zagreb. Stuttgart, with six points, leads the group on goal difference from Benfica. Zagreb and Heerenveen have three points and Beveren zero.

In Group C, Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk kept its 100 percent record with Serhiy Nazarenko's 20th minute goal. FC Brugge beat FC Utrecht 1-0 with Timmy Simons' 62nd-minute goal despite finishing with nine men. Brugge lost playmaker Nastja Ceh at halftime for a high tackle and Tim Cornelisse in the 85th minute for the same offense. Dnipro has nine points; Zaragoza, Brugge and Vienna have three points and Utrecht none.

In Group E, Middlesbrough stayed top despite the loss. Antonio "Guayre" Betancor and Javi Venta scored in each half to give Villarreal its first win of the group stage. Boro has six points, with Partizan Belgrade and Villarreal on four.

Lazio has two points after rallying to a draw off second-half goals from Paolo Di Canio and Simone Inzaghi. Two goals by Cameroon striker Pierre Boya in the first 25 minutes gave Partizan a 2-0 lead. Lazio needs to beat Greek club Egaleo, which has yet to earn a point, next Thursday to advance.

Schalke took the lead in Group A with a 2-0 win over Hungary's Ferencvaros off an own goal by Gabor Gyepes, along with Levan Kobiashvili's strike.

Hearts has three points after earning its first win in the group stage. Robbie Neilson scored an 89th-minute winner for the 2-1 victory at Basel. Schalke has seven points, Feyenoord four, Hearts three and Basel and Ferencvaros one.

In Group F, Rangers went top after a 3-0 win over Grazer AK off second half goals from Nacho Novo, Shota Arveladze and Hamed Namouchi. Dutch side AZ Alkmaar beat Amica Wronki 3-1 for its second straight win, with Barry van Galen, Martijn Meerdink and Stein Huysegems all scoring before halftime. Rangers and AZ Alkmaar have six points, Grazer four, Auxerre one and Amica zero.

In Group H, Lille went top with a 2-1 win over AEK Athens. Lille scored in the 26th minute through Milivoje Vitakic and doubled its lead in the 63rd with a 25m drive from Matthieu Debuchy. The Greeks narrowed the margin in the 71st with a close-range flick by Kofi Abonsah.

In St. Petersburg, Julio Baptista scored a 71st-minute equalizer as Seville salvaged a 1-1 draw at Zenit. Russian international Andrei Arshavin scored the 35th-minute opener. Lille has six points, Zenit and Seville four, Aachen three and AEK zero.

Steaua Bucharest jumped to the top of Group B with a 2-1 win over Besiktas. Adrian Neaga and Cristian Ciocoiu scored for Steaua, who had striker Daniel Oprita sent off in the 70th minute for an intentional handball. Ibrahim Akin scored for Besiktas.

Parma lost to a thundering free kick from Uruguay's Juan Curbelo deep into injury time in Liege, Belgium. Parma went ahead at halftime through Andrea Pisanu. Standard leveled in the 54th through Karel Geeraerts.

Steaua has six points, with Besiktas, Bilbao, Standard and Parma all on three.

The penultimate rotation is Dec. 1 and Dec. 2.

England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson doesn't believe captain David Beckham is "finished as a football player" -- but plans to meet with the Real Madrid player early next year.

Eriksson said Beckham's form could be suffering in Spain because he is being played away from his strongest position on the right flank. Beckham has preferred to play in central midfield at Madrid.

"I don't want to discuss the tactics of Real Madrid, because that's not up to me," Eriksson said. "But for me, he can do better if he plays on the right of either a midfield three or four. It will happen for him, though. I can't believe he's finished as a football player, and he's not. I'm quite sure about that.

Beckham has been replaced in Madrid's last two games before an hour and appears not to have recovered his form since recently returning from a month's absence with two broken ribs.

England hosts the Netherlands in a friendly on Feb. 9 at Villa Park.
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