csconstantine.com

LONDON (AP)—Three-time winner Liverpool was fortunate to leave Sparta Prague with a 0-0 draw in the first leg of their Europa League last-16 match, but fellow former champions Ajax, FC Porto and CSKA Moscow emerged with away wins on Thursday.

Kenny Dalglish’s first European match in charge of the Reds was a dull affair which Sparta shaded, with Leonard Kweuke and Kamil Vacek coming close for the hosts in the second half.

Ajax, the winner of Europe’s second-tier competition in 1992 when it was called the UEFA Cup, thrashed Anderlecht 3-0 with goals by Toby Alderweireld, Christian Eriksen and Mounir El Hamdaoui.

Czech striker Tomas Necid scored the winner for 2005 champion CSKA Moscow in a 1-0 victory at PAOK Salonika, and 2003 winner FC Porto beat Sevilla 2-1 thanks to Fredy Guarin’s late strike.

Villarreal held on for 0-0 at 10-man Napoli but Zenit St. Petersburg, the 2008 champion which was the only team to win all six of its group-stage matches, lost 2-1 at Young Boys.

The second-leg matches in the competition’s first knockout round are spread out over next week.

Dalglish’s first stint as Liverpool manager was from 1985 to 1991, when the English giant was banned from European competition following a deadly riot in the 1985 European Cup final against Juventus at Heysel Stadium.

The 59-year-old Scot was hired for a second stint at the Reds last month and has sparked an upturn in fortunes, but the team’s performance in Prague was reminiscent of those under his predecessor, the beleaguered Roy Hodgson.

The competition winners in 1973, ’76 and 2001 were second best against a side playing its first competitive fixture in two months, due to the Czech Republic’s winter break. A draw makes Liverpool favorite to go through, however.

“I’m still undefeated in Europe,” said Dalglish. “It wasn’t a classic but 0-0 was a fair result and I’m happy with that.”

Alderweireld scored the opener against the team from the country of his birth, heading home a corner in the 33rd minute, and then provided the assist for Denmark youngster Eriksen’s goal in the 60th.

Marcin Wasilewski missed a penalty for Belgian leaders Anderlecht, which won the competition in 1983, before El Hamdaoui wrapped up victory by beating the offside trap and sweeping in a finish in the 69th.

Porto, the unbeaten leader of the Portuguese league, breezed through its group by winning five and drawing one of its six matches, and took the lead in Seville through Rolando in the 58th.

Frederic Kanoute equalized for two-time winner Sevilla in the 65th but Colombia striker Guarin popped up with the winning goal with five minutes remaining, taking advantage of a defensive mix-up to roll the ball home.

Serie A topscorer Edinson Cavani had a goal disallowed for offside and was denied twice by Villarreal goalkeeper Diego Lopez as Napoli, the only Italian team left in Europe’s second-tier club competition, was held at San Paolo Stadium. Salvatore Aronica was sent off for Napoli in the last minute.

“We found out the level we need to play in the competition,” Napoli coach Walter Mazzarri said. “Considering who we were playing, this isn’t a bad result.”

Zenit, one of four Russian teams in the last 32, also had a player red-carded—Vladimir Bystrov in the 69th, when the score was 1-1 against Young Boys.

Emmanuel Mayuka took advantage of the Swiss side’s numerical superiority by grabbing the winner in the fourth minute of stoppage time.

Spartak Moscow rallied from 2-0 down at halftime to beat Basel 3-2 away, with Jano Ananidze completing the turnaround two minutes into injury time.

French league leader Lille’s 2-2 home draw with PSV Eindhoven was marred by pre-match violence in the city center, with French TV reporting that 30 away fans were arrested as a result of clashes with police.

Peguy Luyindula’s last-minute strike salvaged Paris Saint-Germain, second in France’s Ligue 1, a 2-2 draw at BATE Borisov.

Elsewhere, Benfica rallied to beat Stuttgart 2-1, former AC Milan and Chelsea striker Andriy Shevchenko was one of Dynamo Kiev’s scorers in its 4-1 thrashing of Besiktas, late strikes by Luuk de Jong and Peter Wisgerhof earned Dutch champion FC Twente a 2-0 win in subzero temperatures at Rubin Kazan and Artjoms Rudnevs netted the winner for Polish side Lech Poznan in a 1-0 home victory over Braga.

Labels: draws, Europa, league, Liverpool