Werder Bremen, Marseille, Udinese and CSKA Moscow were all victorious in Thursday’s Uefa Cup Round of 16, first leg ties.
Bremen, conquerors of Milan in the last round, claimed a 1-0 home win over St Etienne, with Diego and Naldo combining midway through the first half for the latter to score from the edge of the area.
Marseille, meanwhile, defeated Ajax 2-1 at the Stade Velodrome. Benoit Cheyrou’s shot from 25 yards gave the home side the lead in the 19th minute and Mamadou Niang doubled the lead just 15 minutes later. Luis Suarez’s penalty gave the Dutch side a valuable away goal.
Udinese left it very late to claim a 2-0 win at home to Zenit St Petersburg. With the match apparently headed for a goalless draw, it was not until five minutes from time when Fabio Quagliarella shot high into the roof of the net that the Italians broke the deadlock. One goal became two in injury time when Antonio Di Natale converted a penalty.
Earlier in the day, Vagner Love’s second-half penalty gave Aston Villa’s conquerors, CSKA Moscow, a 1-0 home win against Shakhtar Donetsk.
Dynamo Kiev also took a narrow 1-0 lead into the second leg of their tie against Metalist Kharkiv with a 54th-minute header from Ognjen Vukojevic.
Elsewhere, Marcell Jansen rescued a 1-1 draw for Hamburg at home to Galatasaray who had led through a first-half goal from Ayhan Akman, while Paris Saint Germain and Braga drew 0-0 at the Parc des Princes.