Defending champion CSKA Moscow lost a UEFA Cup match for the first time in 11 games on Thursday to visiting Marseille 2-1.
AS Roma, Stuttgart, Hertha Berlin and Palermo also won during the first rotation of the UEFA Cup's group stage, while 2004 Champions League runner-up Monaco lost at Viking 1-0.
Sabri Lamouchi put Marseille in the lead with a header in the 23rd minute, connecting on a high pass to beat goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev. Fifteen minutes later, Mamadou Niang met Bostjan Cesar's cross from the right and scored from 13m.
CSKA substitute Vagner Love stretched his leg to meet Alexander Salugin's cross in the goal box to make it 2-1 in the 80th.
Marseille goalkeeper Fabien Barthez, who returned after a six-month ban for spitting at a referee, left the goal to intercept Sergei Samodin's attempt one-on-one in the 65th, and had another stunning save in the next minute, leaping to his right to stop Yevgeny Aldonin's drive from inside the box.
The last time Marseille and CSKA Moscow played, the French team won 6-0 and went on to win the 1993 Champions League title.
CSKA had not lost a UEFA Cup match since it dropped into the round of 32 in Europe's second-tier club competition from the Champions League last season. It won both its first round matches in the UEFA Cup this season.
CSKA became the first Russian club to win a European title when it beat Sporting Lisbon 3-1 in the UEFA Cup final in May.
The Russian team is the only previous winner of the 40 teams still alive in the competition.
The top three teams from each of the eight five-team groups advance to the knockout round of 32. Each club plays four times, twice at home and twice away, with the schedule decided randomly.
Roma also won on the road, needing an 84th-minute strike from substitute Leandro Cufre for a 2-1 win over Norwegian side Tromso. Samuel Kuffour opened the scoring for Roma in the 35th minute, heading a corner past Tromso goalkeeper Lars Hirschfeld.
Ole Martin Aarst tied it six minutes later, beating 'keeper Donebier Marangon with a shot from five meters after Roma failed to clear the ball from a free kick. Roma's Simone Perrotta was red-carded in the 89th, after a tough tackle on Tromso's Stephan Ademolu.
Palermo also won on the road, beating Israel's Maccabi Petach-Tikva 2-1 in Group B.
Palermo, which was in Italy's third division five years ago, got its winning goal from Christian Terlizzi in the 77th.
Franco Brienza also scored for Palermo, while Omer Golan got one back for the host.
Toni Nhleko scored in the 18th minute for Viking, netting a rebound from a difficult angle to upset Monaco.
Hertha Berlin topped Halmstads BK 1-0, with Andreas Neuendorf scoring the only goal. Stuttgart received goals from Jon Dahl Tomasson and Danijel Ljuboja in a 2-0 win over Rennes.
Steaua Bucharest, the 1986 European champion, beat French club Lens 4-0 off goals from Victoras Iacob, Dorin Goian and two from Nicolae Dica. Lens striker Aruna Dindane was sent off in the 79th for two yellow cards.
"It is a great, beautiful victory because Lens is an important name in Europe," said Steaua Bucharest coach Oleg Protasov. "I thank the boys who played their hearts out. This was the first step, but we need to continue to fight to qualify."
Hamburg won 1-0 over CSKA Sofia through Rafael Van der Vaart's left-foot volley from 25m.
CSKA Sofia eliminated Germany's Bayer Leverkusen, the 1988 champion, in the first round.
Bolton drew 1-1 at Turkey's Besiktas with Jared Borgetti scoring the equalizer for the English team. Middlesbrough beat Swiss side Grasshoppers 1-0 with a goal from Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink.
Also, it was: Shakhtar Donetsk 1, PAOK Thessaloniki 0; Zenit St. Petersburg 2, Guimaraes 1; Basel 0, Strasbourg 2; Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk 1, AZ Alkmaar 2; and Dinamo Bucharest 0, Heerenveen 0.
Midfielder Aitor Antonana scored twice to help third-division Alcoyano eliminate Mallorca 4-1 in the Copa del Rey's third round.
Jose Parrado also netted and Sergio Mesa added a penalty at Alcoyano's El Collao Muncipal stadium to inflict more problems on Mallorca, which languishes at the foot of the first division.
Japan's Yoshito Okubo scored the consolation goal for Mallorca, which won Spain's knockout competition three seasons ago.
Mallorca was one of four topflight teams upset by lower-league opposition. The others were Racing Santander, Malaga and Real Sociedad. Alaves was also eliminated by second-division Eibar on Wednesday.
Six first-division teams advanced -- Atletico Madrid, Athletic Bilbao, Celta Vigo, Getafe, Cadiz and Zaragoza.
Also through to the next round were second-division Xerez and Lleida, together with third-division Hospitalet.
Santander went out 1-0 at third-division Burgos, from a goal by defender Raul Aguilar in the 80th minute.
Malaga lost 4-3 on penalties to third-division Baza after a 1-1 draw. Sergio Porras opened the scoring for the minnow in the sixth minute, while Uruguayan Richard Morales equalized in the 17th.
Sociedad went out 2-0 in a shootout at third-division Zamora after a 1-1 draw. Igor San Miguel netted in the 37th for the home team, which played most of the game with 10 men, and Oscar de Paula replied in the 59th.
Atletico Madrid squeezed a 1-0 win at third-division Las Palmas, courtesy of Serbia-Montenegro striker Mateja Kezman's 86th-minute goal.
Bilbao edged third-division Real Union 1-0 on Javi Gonzalez's 56th-minute strike, while a Jesus Perera hat trick brought Celta a 3-1 win over fourth-division Tenisca.
In a Madrid derby, Jaime Gavilan and Gica Craioveanu scored before halftime to earn Getafe a 2-1 victory over third-division Rayo Vallecano.
Cadiz downed second-division Albacete 3-1 after extra time. Ivan Ania, Oli Alvarez and Nenad Mirosavljevic scored for Cadiz, while Antonio Pacheco netted for Albacete.
Zaragoza edged third-division Alicante 6-5 on penalties after a 1-1 draw. Alvaro Garcia scored for Alicante in the 106th with Juan Jose Camacho leveling four minutes later.
According to competition rules, first-division teams play their games away from home in the early rounds.
The nine first-division teams which began the season in European competition receive byes until the last 16, including holder Real Betis, which lost 4-0 to Chelsea in the Champions League on Tuesday.
Ryan Giggs will have surgery after fracturing his cheekbone in Tuesday's 0-0 Champions League draw against Lille at Old Trafford.
The Welsh winger, who was making his 100th appearance in European play, suffered the injury in a collision with Lille defender Stathis Tavlaridis.
A club official said Thursday it was unclear how many games he might miss.
United is already without several injured players including Roy Keane, Gabriel Heinze and Gary Neville.
Microsoft and Wembley
US software giant Microsoft Corp announced a seven-figure sponsorship deal Thursday with the owners of the new Wembley Stadium.
The five-year deal makes Microsoft the stadium's first "founding partner," a title the stadium is reserving for only its largest sponsors and which comes loaded with perks.
Wembley, which is home of England's national soccer team, will be wired with the latest information technology from Microsoft as it enters the final stages of its ?757 million (US$1.3 billion) rebuild.
In return, Microsoft's logo will be seen by millions passing through the stadium's turnstiles when it reopens in May 2006, as the deal allows the company to place 100 branded "plaques" around the stadium. Microsoft will also get a box on the halfway line and exclusive use of the 90,000-seat venue for one day each year.
The new stadium, crowned by a 130m arch, is already a landmark on the north London skyline. If the stadium is finished in time, it will host next year's FA Cup Final and the Rugby League Challenge Cup Final, as well as live events including a concert by Bon Jovi.
"Wembley Stadium plays a unique role in British life -- it's a national icon that has inspired generation after generation of young people with the dream of playing and performing at Wembley," said Nick Barley, Microsoft UK's business and marketing officer. "By becoming Wembley Stadium's first founding partner, we are helping to ensure that dream continues."
Barley said that Microsoft was drawn by the challenge of producing the huge technology infrastructure needed by a venue of Wembley's size as well as the branding opportunity.
"Microsoft is one of the world's leading companies and is notoriously selective over which organizations it chooses to partner," said Michael Cunnah, chief executive of Wembley National Stadium Ltd, adding that the partnership would help "resurrect the stadium as the world's leading sports and entertainment venue."
Media reports put the value of the deal at ?5 million. Microsoft and Wembley National Stadium Ltd confirmed it was worth seven figures, but declined to be more specific.
Brewer Carlsberg UK Ltd also said it is in negotiations about a deal. Wembley declined to comment on reports that it is also holding talks with sports clothing firm Umbro PLC.
Henry on wright
The great disappointment of Thierry Henry's career is that he never played with Ian Wright, whose Arsenal scoring record he eclipsed by one goal this week.
Henry surpassed Wright's mark in Arsenal's 2-0 win Tuesday over Sparta Prague, scoring twice to take the record to 186 goals.
"My only regret of my career is that we never played with each other," Henry told Arsenal's TV network.
"Maybe at times we would have been upset with each other on the pitch, but that's the way it is."
Henry, 28, said Wright called to congratulate him after the match.
Henry said he also wished he could have joined fellow Frenchman and former Arsenal player Nicolas Anelka on the pitch.
"I would have liked to have played with Ian Wright and Nicolas Anelka to see what we could have done together," Henry said. "I could have played on the wing or behind those two. It's a shame I never played with both of them."
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB