Former champions Bayer Leverkusen, Feyenoord and Galatasaray were dumped out of the first round of the UEFA Cup on Thursday.
Leverkusen lost 1-0 at CSKA Sofia -- Morocco's Mourad Hdiouad scoring with a 67th-minute header off Hristo Janev's cross -- and lost the two-leg tie 2-0 on aggregate.
"This is bitter -- the team is devastated," Leverkusen's temporary coach Rudi Voeller said. "I will try and lift their spirits. But if you can't score a goal in two matches against a team like Sofia, then you can't advance."
PHOTO: AFP
Leverkusen won the UEFA Cup in 1988 and was runner-up in the 2002 Champions League.
Dutch league leader Feyenoord, UEFA Cup champion in 1974 and 2002, lost 1-0 at Romania's Rapid Bucharest to exit 2-1 on aggregate. Mugurel Buga scored with a 12th-minute header. Feyenoord had chances from Dirk Kuijt and Shinji Ono.
"We played two matches where everything went against us," Kuijt said. "Everything was just uphill."
PHOTO: EPA
It was a good night for Romanian clubs, with Steaua Bucharest, the 1986 European champion, beating Valerenga 3-1 to advance 6-1 and Dinamo Bucharest eliminating England's Everton 5-2 on aggregate.
Galatasaray, the Turkish club that beat Arsenal for the 2000 title, drew 1-1 with Tromso, but the Norwegian club advanced 2-1 on aggregate.
The former champions were the biggest names to exit the 40-match first round, which featured clubs from 30 European countries. Twenty advance to the group stage of Europe's second tier club competition, with the draw scheduled for Tuesday.
Defending champion CSKA Moscow overcame an early goal from FC Midtjylland to win 3-1 at Herning, Denmark, and advance 6-2 on aggregate. Moscow's Brazilian midfielder Daniel Carvalho scored twice and Sergei Samodin also sent the ball past Midtjylland's Swedish goalkeeper Ola Tidman.
However last season's runner-up Sporting Lisbon was ousted at home on away goals after Sweden's Halmstads BK scored in injury time to level the aggregate at 3-3, forced extra time and won 3-2 at the end. It was 4-4 overall.
Bulgaria's Levski Sofia was another club to dispose of a big name, edging French club Auxerre 1-1 to advance on away goals. Also advancing were Monaco, the 2004 Champions League runner-up and Lens, while Rennes eliminated Spain's Osasuna.
Strasbourg hasn't won in the French league this season, but beat Grazer AK 5-0 and 7-0 on aggregate. Marseille needed penalties to eliminate Royal Antwerp after two 0-0 draws.
Last year's UEFA semifinalist AZ Alkmaar pulled off a spectacular come-from-behind 3-1 win over 10-man Krylya Sovetov Samara to go through on aggregate. Louis van Gaal's side had lost the first game 5-3 in Russia for a 6-6 combined score, enough to send it through on the away goal rule. Heerenveen also advanced from the Netherlands.
Germany's Stuttgart advanced 2-1 on aggregate despite a 1-0 loss to Domzale. The Slovenian club scored through Dalibor Stevanovic.
After two days of rain, the match was almost canceled. The game was played on a waterlogged field, with water splashing and the ball hardly budging when players kicked it.
"The important thing is we are through. This game bore no resemblance to football," Stuttgart sports director Herbert Briem said.
Hertha Berlin and Hamburg also advanced, but Mainz 05 lost to Spain's Sevilla.
Three Italian clubs went through -- Palermo, Sampdoria and Roma.
Sampdoria beat Portugal's Setubal 1-0 to advance 2-1 in its first European match in eight years at Marassi stadium, Genoa. Roma drew 0-0 at Greece's Aris Thessaloniki but advanced 5-1 on aggregate.
English Premier League club Bolton beat Lokomotiv Plovdiv 2-1 to advance 4-2 in its debut season in Europe. Middlesbrough drew 0-0 with Xanthi of Greece but went through 2-0 on aggregate.
Red Star Belgrade, the 1991 European champion, advanced on away goals after tying Portugal's Braga 1-1.
Other winners were Spain's Espanyol, Switzerland's Grasshoppers and Basel, Greece's PAOK, Russia's Lokomotiv Moscow and Zenit St. Petersburg, Israel's Maccabi Petach-Tikva, the Czech Republic's Slavia Prague, Ukraine's Shaktar Donetsk and Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, Denmark's Brondby, Portugal's Guimaraes, Bulgaria's Litex Lovech, Norway's Viking, and Turkey's Besiktas.
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