PARIS: Favourites Liverpool began their Europa League campaign with a narrow 1-0 victory over Romanian champions Unirea Urziceni in the home leg of their round-of-32 tie on Thursday.

The five-time European champions spurned a series of chances before David Ngog secured the breakthrough in the 81st minute. The Frenchman scored with a close-range diving header after Ryan Babel’s raking cross had been knocked down by Daniel Pacheco, to hand Rafael Benitez’s side a slim advantage ahead of the return leg on February 25.

Shakhtar Donetsk went down to an unexpected 2-1 defeat at Fulham. Serie A title challengers Roma, meanwhile, saw their 20-match unbeaten run come to an abrupt halt in a dramatic 3-2 loss to Greek side Panathinaikos.

Earlier, two headed goals from Amauri earned Juventus a precious 2-1 lead over Ajax. Last season’s beaten UEFA Cup finalists Werder Bremen

lost 1-0 in the away leg of their tie with former England coach Steve McClaren’s FC Twente, who prevailed through Theo Janssen’s 39th-minute goal. German champions Wolfsburg drew 2-2 at Villarreal, while Belgian outfit Club Brugge secured a famous 1-0 victory against 10-man Valencia.

Hamburg defeated Dutch heavyweights PSV Eindhoven 1-0, while Marseille won 3-1 at FC Copenhagen and Atletico Madrid were held to a 1-1 draw at home to Turkish side Galatasaray. Russian champions Rubin Kazan planted one foot in the last 16 after seeing off Israel’s Hapoel Tel-Aviv 3-0 while French side Lille edging Fenerbahce 2-1.