By Xinhua
London : Former champions Bayern Munich of Germany and Ajax Amsterdam of the Netherlands started their UEFA Cup campaigns with identical 1-0 wins in first round first leg matches.
Italy striker Luca Toni scored the lone goal Thursday night for Bayern against Belenenses in the 34th minute.
Bundesliga rivals Bayer Leverkusen fared better in another Germany-Portugal clash, beating Uniao Leiria 3-1 at home.
Ajax won at Dynamo Zagreb as Dennis Rommedahl beat goalkeeper Georg Koch to score the winner from a pass by strike partner Klaas Jan Huntelaar just past the hour mark.
However, English Premier League clubs had mixed fortunes.
Tottenham Hotspur dumped Anorthosis Famagusta of Cyprus 6-1 at White Hart Lane, Everton striker Andy Johnson missed two penalties in a 1-1 home draw with Ukraine’s Metalist Kharkiv, who finished with nine men.
Blackburn Rovers lost 0-2 at Larissa while Bolton Wanderers, bottom of the Premier League, drew 1-1 at Rabotnicki Skopje of Macedonia.
Spurs killed their match with three goals in three minutes just before the break, with Michael Dawson, Robbie Keane and Darren Bent setting up a victory that will almost certainly put them into the group stage.
Greece had a particularly good night as its five sides, including AEK Athens and Panathinaikos, all won.
In other games, Luis Garcia scored twice for Atletico Madrid in a 4-0 rout of Turkey’s Erciyesspor, Spartak Moscow scored a 5-0 win over Sweden’s Haecken, and another former European champion Red Star Belgrade won 1-0 at Groclin Grodzisk of Poland.