Valencia and Rosenborg may be sitting pretty after three-goal wins, but the rest of the teams involved in the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round know they still have work to do in the second leg.
The level of competition was high across the continent as nine games ended in slender one-goal victories and another four ended in stalemates.
The biggest surprise came in Amsterdam, where Ajax's forward line failed to break down their resolute visitors, Slavia Prague. As so often happens in football, the Dutch outfit were then made to pay as the Czechs went ahead through David Kalivoda's penalty in the 74th minute. The 1-0 loss will leave Ajax feeling their chances have not evaporated entirely, but Slavia now have the luxury of sitting back and defending their advantage on home soil.
A day before Ajax's slip-up, Lazio dug themselves into something of a hole on Tuesday by recording a 1-1 draw at home to Dinamo Bucharest in a fractious match marked by three sending-offs (two for Lazio, one for Bucharest), six bookings and just as many injuries. The Romanians took a deserved lead courtesy of Ionel Danciulescu's guided header, and they were then dependent on goalkeeper Bogdan Lobont for resisting huge pressure from the hosts. The former Fiorentina man even saved a penalty from Tommaso Rocchi and, although he was ultimately unable to keep out Massimo Mutarelli's volley, the return leg promises to be a real test of Lazio's mettle.
Valencia encountered no such difficulties, putting their tie with Swedish outfit Elfsborg beyond much doubt with a 3-0 home win, thanks to strikes from Vicente, David Silva and Fernando Morientes. Rosenborg recorded the away performance of the round, meanwhile, as Youssouf Kone's brace helped them to a 3-0 win in Finland against Tampere. Dynamo Kiev will also be pleased with their away trip, having come back from Sarajevo with a 1-0 triumph, Maksim Shatskikh netting the only goal.
English heavyweights win away
As for Liverpool, last season's beaten finalists controlled their game away to Toulouse and took a 1-0 lead in the tie when Andriy Voronin fired a spectacular effort into the top corner just before half-time. The Reds have never been eliminated by a French club in the Champions League and Toulouse now have a mountain to climb if they are to change that.
Two more of Europe's leading sides gave their chances of progress a major boost as Arsenal and Sevilla both picked up 2-0 wins. Cesc Fabregas and Alexander Hleb were on target for the Gunners against Sparta in Prague, while Luis Fabiano and Frederic Kanoute did the damage for the UEFA Cup holders at home to AEK Athens.
In Glasgow, Rangers were somewhat less impressive and had to wait until Nacho Novo's last-gasp effort to secure a 1-0 success over Crvena Zvezda. Likewise, Benfica owe a debt of gratitude to Rui Costa for hitting both their goals in a 2-1 defeat of Copenhagen, with the winning strike coming just four minutes before the final whistle. Elsewhere, Alex gave Fenerbahce a narrow 1-0 win over Anderlecht, while Giovanni Trapattoni's Salzburg beat Ukrainian club Shakhtar Donetsk by the same scoreline, Alexander Zickler finding the target from the penalty spot.
Trailing at the break, Werder Bremen needed a sterling second half revival, not to mention goals from Hugo Almeida and Daniel Jensen, to give them victory over visitors Dinamo Zagreb. In a similar vein, FC Zurich found themselves chasing the game for 87 minutes against Besiktas after Matias Delgado's opener for the Turks, but managed to pull themselves level when Alphonse struck an equaliser in the closing seconds.
Celtic also picked up a precious draw in their meeting with Spartak Moscow, and will probably feel they should have left the Russian capital with a win after Paul Hartley put them ahead. Roman Pavlyuchenko made it 1-1 for Spartak, consigning the Scots to the same disappointment felt by Steaua Bucharest, who completely dominated their game away to Bate Borisov of Belarus, only to be pegged back by Gennadi Bilznyuk's last-minute leveller.
The second leg matches will be held on 28 and 29 August.
