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Liverpool, Juventus seal Europa wins
Source: Agencies |
February 20, 2010, Saturday
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FORMER European champions Juventus and Liverpool won their first games in this season's Europa?League on Thursday.
While Liverpool labored on its return to the second tier of European club football and beat Unirea Urziceni only 1-0 with a late goal, Brazilian striker Amauri scored a header in each half as Juve recovered from a goal down to beat Ajax 2-1 in a rerun of the 1996 final.
Spain's four teams failed to earn a single win between them, even with three of them playing at home.
Atletico Madrid drew 1-1 with Galatasaray, Athletic Bilbao drew 1-1 with Anderlecht, Villarreal drew 2-2 with Wolfsburg, and Valencia lost 1-0 at FC Brugge.
Ajax started aggressively in Amsterdam. Siem de Jong headed wide before Miralem Sulejmani put the home side in the lead in the 17th.
Veteran striker Alessandro Del Piero started the move that led to Juventus' 32nd-minute equalizer, passing two defenders on the left before picking out Paolo De Ceglie, who crossed to Amauri.
Del Piero then set up Amauri again in the 58th.
"Perhaps I am exaggerating but I believe they had two crosses the whole game and they scored from those two," Ajax coach Martin Jol said. "We deserved more."
Liverpool, another of the former European champions now fighting it out in the less prestigious Europa?League, was unimpressive against Unirea Urziceni.
The English Premier League side needed an 81st-minute header by striker David Ngog to beat the visiting Romanian team.
Ryan Babel crossed right-footed from the left to another substitute, Daniel Pacheco, and the Spanish youngster headed back across goal for Ngog to score from close range.
"They were very stubborn but we expected that," Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard said. "Maybe we need to be a bit more clinical. Maybe we lacked 5 or 10 percent on the speed of the ball but I think we'll get more joy against these away from home."
Fulham beat Shakhtar Donetsk, the last club to win the UEFA Cup before it was revamped as the Europa?League this season, 2-1 in west London. Zoltan Gera and Bobby Zamora scored for Fulham.
Everton, the third English club in the competition, beat Sporting Lisbon 2-1 on Tuesday.
Galatasaray has the edge over Atletico Madrid after Abdul Keita grabbed an away goal in the second half following Jose Antonio Reyes' 23rd-minute free kick for the hosts.
Two-time Champions League runner-up and former UEFA Cup winner Valencia lost to a 56th-minute goal by FC Brugge striker Dorge Kouemaha, while Bilbao needed a 58th-minute equalizer from Mikel San Jose after Lucas Biglia had opened the scoring at San Mames Stadium.
Villarreal equalized with five minutes left against Wolfsburg through striker Marco Ruben.
Djibril Cisse scored with a minute left to give Panathinaikos a surprise 3-2 win over visiting AS Roma.
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