MILAN, 17 August 2007 — Slavia Prague produced the standout result on Wednesday with a 1-0 win at Ajax Amsterdam in the first leg of their Champions League third qualifying round tie but most other matches went to form.
Hot weather made conditions tough in the early games where Andriy Voronin gave last season’s runners-up Liverpool a 1-0 win at Toulouse and Celtic managed a 1-1 draw at Spartak Moscow.
Sevilla, looking for a first ever place in the group phase, produced a classy 2-0 win at home to AEK Athens in a later clash with young winger Jesus Navas setting up strikers Luis Fabiano and Frederic Kanoute in the second half with blistering runs.
It was a tale of two penalties in Amsterdam with Slavia’s David Kalivoda converting a 76th minute spot kick to seal their 1-0 win at Ajax, who missed a penalty on the hour when Klaas Jan Huntelaar’s effort was saved by Martin Vaniak.
Sparta Prague failed to match the performance of their neighbors and went down 2-0 at home to 2006 finalists Arsenal, who scored through Cesc Fabregas and Alexander Hleb’s injury time goal.
In the heat of southwest France, Voronin scored his first competitive goal for Liverpool at last season’s surprise French package Toulouse.
The former Bayer Leverkusen player, who joined the 2005 champions as a free agent in July, struck just before halftime with a clinical 25-meter drive.
Scottish champions Celtic also had to battle through steamy temperatures but hung on in Moscow with Paul Hartley’s header midway through the first half being canceled out by a Roman Pavlyuchenko goal before the break.
Daniel Jensen’s long range strike four minutes from time gave Werder Bremen a 2-1 win over Dinamo Zagreb at the Weserstadion.
Bosko Balaban put the Croatian champions deservedly in front at the end of the first half but the Germans sprang into action after the break with substitute Hugo Almeida scoring on the rebound to equalize before the Dane grabbed the winner. Burkino Faso striker Yssouf Kone, who scored four in Rosenborg’s 10-2 aggregate demolition of Kazakhstan’s Astana in the last round, grabbed a double to give the Norwegian champions a 3-0 away win over Finland’s Tampere United.
Dynamo Kiev were also away winners with a 1-0 victory at Sarajevo but big-spending Ukrainian compatriots Shakhtar Donetsk went down 1-0 at Giovanni Trapattoni’s Salzburg.
Turkish title holders Fenerbahce lead 1-0 after their home leg with Belgian champions Anderlecht while Istanbul’s other representatives Besiktas drew 1-1 at FC Zurich.
Steaua Bucharest conceded in the last minute to draw 2-2 at BATE Borisov of Belarus but the Romanians have a good chance of progressing to the group stage alongside Dinamo Bucharest, who drew 1-1 at nine-man Lazio on Tuesday.
Ronaldo Sent Off as
United Held Again
In London, champions Manchester United stumbled to their second successive Premier League draw on Wednesday when they were held 1-1 at Portsmouth and had Cristiano Ronaldo sent off for violent conduct.
Chelsea hit back in the second half to beat Reading 2-1, Manchester City, with their first home goal since Jan. 1, beat Derby County 1-0, Fulham beat Bolton Wanderers 2-1, Wigan Athletic beat Middlesbrough 1-0 and Sunderland snatched a last-minute equalizer to draw 2-2 at Birmingham City.
Carlos Tevez marked his Manchester United debut by setting up Paul Scholes to drive in the opening goal at Portsmouth after 15 minutes. United produced some lovely football but Portsmouth, who had beaten them in three of their four previous Premier League meetings at Fratton Park, stunned the champions with a 53rd-minute Benjani Mwaruwari header.
Portsmouth’s Sulley Muntari was sent off in the 83rd minute for a second booking and Ronaldo followed him two minutes later for a headbutt with barely any contact made.
Sven-Goran Eriksson’s City followed up their impressive opening 2-0 success at West Ham United by beating promoted Derby with a well-taken goal by 19-year-old Michael Johnson.
That 43rd-minute effort brought to an end the longest home top-flight drought since the league was founded in 1888.
Reading earned a point from a goalless draw at Old Trafford last Sunday but on home soil had a real go at Chelsea.
They took the lead on the half hour through Andre Bikey after goalkeeper Petr Cech had failed to gather a high ball but paid a heavy price for missing further chances.
Jose Mourinho made two changes at halftime and it paid immediate dividends as Chelsea equalized with a typical surging charge from Frank Lampard in the 47th minute and secured their second successive win with a nicely-curled effort by Didier Drogba two minutes later.
“At halftime we were a little disappointed just to be 1-0 up,” said Reading coach Steve Coppell.
“I knew they would make changes at halftime, it gave a different complexion to their play and for five minutes we fell asleep.”
