Feyenoord, Stuttgart and Rangers registered comfortable wins Thursday in the group stage of the UEFA Cup, while French side Lille was upset 1-0 by a German second-division club.
In the night's least lopsided matchup, Lazio salvaged a 1-1 draw with last season's semifinalist Villarreal with Tommaso Rocchi's 84th minute equalizer.
PHOTO: AP
Villarreal had gone ahead in the Group E match through a fourth-minute strike from Jose Mari Romero, who was later sent off in the 75th minute for elbowing Lazio's Giuliano Giannichedda.
PHOTO: EPA
Sixteen matches were played on the first night of the inaugural group stage of Europe's second tier club competition. The 40 clubs who advanced from the first round were divided into eight groups of five, with each club playing two home and two away games. The schedule was decided randomly.
Lille, second in the French league only on goal difference to Lyon, lost to Alemannia Aachen in their Group H match.
Aachen got into the UEFA Cup by finishing runner-up in the German Cup to champion Werder Bremen. The match was played in Cologne because Aachen's ground doesn't meet UEFA standards. The Germans had the upper hand throughout the match and Eric Meijer put Aachen ahead after 67 minutes.
In the other Group H match, Alexander Kerzhakov scored a hat trick as Zenit St. Petersburg came back from one goal down to thrash AEK Athens 5-1 in Russia.
In Group A, Feyenoord beat Scottish club Hearts 3-0 off two goals from Dutch international Dirk Kuijt and another from Bart Goor. In Gelsenkirchen, Germany, Matias Delgado came off the bench to score a late goal and salvage a 1-1 draw for FC Basel at Schalke.
Levan Kobiashvili scored in the eighth minute after Basel had lost the ball in the midfield. Delgado scored the equalizer in the 82nd, driving a curling free-kick into the upper corner.
In Group G, Stuttgart striker Imre Szabics scored in the 90th minute, sealing an easy 5-1 win at Belgian side Beveren. Cacau scored twice for the Bundesliga leader and Kevin Kuranyi and Philipp Lahm added the others. Beveren had a consolation goal from Ndri Romaric.
Benfica had a hard-fought 4-2 win over Dutch side Heerenveen in the other group match. The Portuguese took a 2-0 lead with goals from Manuel Dos Santos and Nuno Gomes before Heerenveen equalized with two goals in two minutes at the beginning of the second half from Ugur Yildrim and a Klaas Jan Huntelaar penalty.
Azar Karadas and Gomes scored in the 74th and 78th to secure the win for Benfica.
In Group D, Araujo Ilan and Gregory Paisley scored to lift French side Sochaux to a 2-0 victory over Dinamo Tbilisi.
Newcastle needed an 87th-minute penalty from Alan Shearer to beat Greek side Panionios 1-0 in the other Group D match. Newcastle won the penalty after substitute Shola Ameobi had been fouled by Grigoris Makos.
In Group C, Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk beat Club Brugge 3-2 in Ukraine with two goals from Oleh Venhlinskiy. Real Zaragoza beat Dutch club FC Utrecht 2-0 with two goals from David Villa.
In Group B, Steaua Bucharest beat Standard Liege 2-0 with an Adrian Neaga strike and an own goal from Standard's Ivica Dragutinovic. Athletic Bilbao beat Parma 2-0 with goals from Asier Del Horno and Carlos Gurpegui in the other group match.
In Group F, Rangers notched up its biggest European win in four years with the victory over Amica Wronki, with goals from Peter Lovenkrands, Nacho Novo, Fernando Ricksen, Shota Arveladze and Steven Thompson. Auxerre and Austria's Grazer AK drew 0-0 in the other Group F match.
English club Middlesbrough registered a 1-0 win at Greek club Egaleo with a 77th minute goal from substitute Stewart Downing.
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