Europa League holders Atletico Madrid and Serie A title challengers Napoli were upset at home but Russia’s Anzhi Makhachkala and Zenit St Petersburg opened up commanding first-leg advantages in other last 32 ties yesterday.
Rubin Kazan’s Gokdeniz Karadeniz scored after six minutes and Pablo Orbaiz struck deep into added time to give the Russians, who played the entire second half with 10 men, a shock 2-0 win at Atletico.
Goals from Vladimir Darida, Frantisek Rajtoral and Stanislav Tecl upset Napoli while Anzhi beat Hanover 3-1 and Zenit won 2-0 at home against five-times European Cup winners Liverpool.
Brazilian Oscar spared European champions Chelsea’s blushes late on against Czechs Sparta Prague to give the Londoners a 1-0 lead to take back to Stamford Bridge for the second leg next Thursday.
Inter, three times European champions, beat Champions League dropouts CFR Cluj 2-0 with two Rodrigo Palacio goals though the win was soured when injury-prone forward Diego Milito lasted just six minutes and cried as he left the pitch with a knee problem.
Samuel Eto’o was on target and missed a penalty for big-spending Anzhi after Hanover had taken the lead midway through the first half.
The German visitors drew first blood when Hungarian Szabolcs Huszti scored only for Eto’o to level after 34 minutes and Odil Ahmedov to put Anzhi in front three minutes after the restart.
Eto’o missed a penalty just short of the hour mark but Mbark Boussoufa gave the Russians a sizeable 3-1 lead after 64 minutes.
Hulk’s unstoppable swerving effort from 30 metres broke the deadlock for Zenit after 69 minutes and Sergei Semak poked home three minutes later to break Liverpool’s resistance after the Premier League club’s striker Luis Suarez had spurned several chances.
“He (Suarez) could have had a hat-trick by half-time,” Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers said.
“It wasn’t his night. The positive we take into the next game is that if we can be solid defensively we can create some chances next week.
“I feel we’re more than capable of that,” added Rodgers.
Darida was on hand to crash the loose ball into the net after 28 minutes against Napoli, second in the Italian league and who were not taking the competition lightly as forwards Edinson Cavani, Marek Hamsik and Goran Pandev all played.
Rajtoral crept in unnoticed at the far post to bundle the ball past Italian international Morgan De Sanctis with 11 minutes remaining while Tecl added a third late on to give Czech league leaders Plzen a famous victory.
Chelsea, who dropped into the Europa League after being dumped out of the Champions League as holders in the group stage, fielded an equally strong side with Frank Lampard, Juan Mata and Eden Hazard all featuring though misfiring forward Fernando Torres had another game to forget.
The English club flirted with a 0-0 draw until Oscar’s 82-minute winner shortly after coming on.
At White Hart Lane, Gareth Bale was again Tottenham’s hero as the Welshman scored twice in a 2-1 win over Lyon, the winner coming in the 90th minute.
Atletico Madrid’s Radamel Falcao (left) in an aerial duel with Rubin Kazan’s Ivan Marcano.