Europa League round-up:An inexperienced Tottenham side came through a nail-biting finish to leave the cauldron of the Toumba Stadium with a hard fought point in the Group A clash against PAOK Salonika.
Carlo Cudicini was called upon to make three fine saves late on and Vladimir Ivic rattled the Italian’s bar in stoppage time amid a white-hot atmosphere in Greece.
Lino missed a re-taken first-half penalty for the hosts while debutant Yago Falque twice went close for Tottenham and Harry Kane might have been awarded an earlier spot-kick after being brought down in the box.
Tottenham host Shamrock Rovers at White Hart Lane in their next outing in the competition on September 29th.
Stoke were denied a winning start to their Group E campaign by Dynamo Kiev's late equaliser in the 1-1 draw at the Valeriy Lobanovskiy Stadium.
The Ukrainian hosts dominated the first 45 minutes and should have gone ahead midway through when Andriy Yarmolenko blazed wide with the goal at his mercy.
Having weathered the storm, the Potters took the lead 10 minutes into the second half when Cameron Jerome finished from Ryan Shotton’s cross, but after Oleksandr Aliev had hit the bar for Dynamo, Ognjen Vukojevic levelled in stoppage time.
Besiktas strolled to the top of the group with a 5-1 triumph over Maccabi Tel-Aviv in a highly-charged atmosphere in Istanbul.
Celtic’s lamentable European away record continued with a 2-0 defeat by Atletico Madrid in Group I at the Vicente Calderon stadium.
The visitors were still warming to their task when Colombian striker Radamel Falcao met a Diego corner in the third minute to head past Hoops goalkeeper Fraser Forster.
Diego added the second in the 67th minute to leave the Parkhead men with one away win in Europe in 31 games ahead of Sunday’s Old Firm clash at Ibrox.
Mark Schwarzer’s own goal condemned Fulham to a frustrating 1-1 draw with FC Twente in a tie which they dominated for the most part.
The Australia international was unfortunate to deflect home a Luuk de Jong header that rebounded off the post, against the goalkeeper, and in.
The west Londoners impressed throughout and took the lead courtesy of Andrew Johnson, who finished with aplomb after latching onto Dwight Tiendalli’s square ball.
Birmingham’s dream of making a flying start to their campaign was brought crashing back down to earth with a 3-1 home defeat to last year’s beaten finalists Braga.
The Portuguese side ultimately proved they had too much class in front of goal to leave Chris Hughton’s side with an uphill task if they are to qualify for the knockout phase.
Two goals from Helder Barbosa, early in the game and again late on, sunk the Blues after Marlon King had offered up hope following a controversial effort from Lima that gave the visitors a 2-0 lead.
Italian giants Lazio were fortunate to escape with a 2-2 draw against Romanian side Vaslui in their opening Group D clash at the Stadio Olimpico.
Edy Reja’s men played the last half-hour with 10 men following the dismissal of defender Luciano Zauri and had to rely on Giuseppe Sculli’s 71st-minute strike to avoid deeper embarrassment.
Djibril Cisse’s 35th-minute penalty had given the hosts the lead but a brace from Brazilian Wesley early in the second half gave Vaslui the scent of glory before Sculli came to the rescue.
In the same pool, Sporting Lisbon made a more impressive start with a 2-0 win over FC Zurich in Switzerland. Emiliano Insua opened the scoring after four minutes and Ricky van Wolfswinkel added a second.
Former European champions PSV Eindhoven relied on a piece of magic from Dries Mertens to nudge past visitors Legia Warsaw 1-0 in Group C. The Belgium winger lashed home the only goal of the game after 21 minutes.
Paris St Germain got their Group F campaign off to a strong start with a 3-1 win over Salzburg while in the same group Athletic Bilbao grabbed a 2-1 victory at Slovan Bratislava.
Hannover and Standard Liege played out a painfully uninspiring goalless draw in their Group B opener in Germany, while Morten Nordstrand’s second-half penalty settled a low-key encounter in FC Copenhagen’s favour as they edged Ukrainian side Vorskla 1-0 in Denmark.
