Three-time UEFA Cup winners Liverpool were fortunate to leave Sparta Prague with a 0-0 draw in the first leg of their Europa League round-of-16 match, but fellow former champions Ajax, Porto and CSKA Moscow emerged with away wins on Thursday.
Kenny Dalglish’s first European match in charge of the Reds was a dull affair that Sparta shaded, with Leonard Kweuke and Kamil Vacek coming close for the hosts in the second half.
Ajax, the winners of Europe’s second-tier competition in 1992, thrashed Anderlecht 3-0 with goals from Toby Alderweireld, Christian Eriksen and Mounir El Hamdaoui.
Czech striker Tomas Necid scored the winner for 2005 champions CSKA Moscow in a 1-0 victory at Greece’s PAOK, while 2003 winners Porto beat Sevilla 2-1 thanks to Fredy Guarin’s late strike.
Villarreal held on for 0-0 at 10-man Napoli, but Zenit St Petersburg, the 2008 champions and the only team to win all six of their group-stage matches, lost 2-1 at Switzerland’s BSC Young Boys.
The second-leg matches in the competition’s first knockout round are spread out over next week.
Dalglish’s first stint as Liverpool manager was from 1985 to 1991, when the English giants were banned from European competition following a deadly riot in the 1985 European Cup final against Juventus at Heysel.
The 59-year-old Scot was hired for a second stint at the Reds last month and has sparked an upturn in fortunes, but the team’s performance in Prague was reminiscent of those under his predecessor, the beleaguered Roy Hodgson.
The competition winners in 1973, 1976 and 2001 were second best against a side playing their first competitive fixture in two months because of the Czech Republic’s winter break, but the draw makes Liverpool favorites to go through.
“I’m still undefeated in Europe,” Dalglish said. “It wasn’t a classic, but 0-0 was a fair result and I’m happy with that.”
Alderweireld scored the opener against the team from the country of his birth, heading home a corner in the 33rd minute, and then provided the assist for Denmark youngster Eriksen’s goal in the 60th minute.
Marcin Wasilewski missed a penalty for Anderlecht, before El Hamdaoui wrapped up victory by beating the offside trap and sweeping in a finish in the 69th minute.
Porto breezed through their group by winning five and drawing one of their six matches and they took the lead in Seville through Rolando in the 58th minute.
Frederic Kanoute equalized for two-time winners Sevilla in the 65th minute, but Colombia striker Guarin popped up with the winning goal with five minutes remaining, taking advantage of a defensive mix-up to roll the ball home.
Serie A’s top scorer Edinson Cavani had a goal disallowed for offside and was denied twice by Villarreal goalkeeper Diego Lopez as Napoli, the only Italian team left in the Europa League, were held at the Stadio San Paolo. Salvatore Aronica was sent off for Napoli in the last minute.
“We found out the level we need to play in the competition,” Napoli coach Walter Mazzarri said. “Considering who we were playing, this isn’t a bad result.”
Zenit, one of four Russian teams in the last 32, also had a player red-carded — Vladimir Bystrov in the 69th minute, when the score was 1-1 against Young Boys.
Emmanuel Mayuka took advantage of the Swiss side’s numerical superiority by grabbing the winner in the fourth minute of stoppage-time.
Spartak Moscow rallied from 2-0 down at halftime to beat Basel 3-2 away, with Jano Ananidze completing the turnaround two minutes into stoppage-time.
Ligue leaders Lille’s 2-2 home draw with PSV Eindhoven was marred by pre-match violence in the city center, with French TV reporting that 30 away fans were arrested as a result of clashes with police.
Peguy Luyindula’s last-minute strike salvaged Paris Saint-Germain, second in Ligue 1, a 2-2 draw at BATE Borisov.
Elsewhere, Benfica rallied to beat VfB Stuttgart 2-1, former AC Milan and Chelsea striker Andriy Shevchenko was one of Dynamo Kiev’s scorers in their 4-1 thrashing of Besiktas, late strikes by Luuk de Jong and Peter Wisgerhof earned Dutch champions Twente a 2-0 win in subzero temperatures at Rubin Kazan and Artjoms Rudnevs netted the winner for Polish side Lech Poznan in a 1-0 home victory over Braga.
Bundesliga high-flyers Bayer Leverkusen can take their foot off the pedal for next week’s second leg in Germany as they ran out easy 4-0 winners over Ukrainian outfit Metalist Kharkiv, with Sidney Sam grabbing a late brace.
Matias Fernandez’s goal in the final minute gave Portugal’s Sporting a 1-1 draw with Rangers in Glasgow.
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