Greek side Panathinaikos faces an uphill battle to reach the Champions League group stage after losing 3-1 at Sparta Prague in the first leg of their third qualifying round tie on Tuesday. However, Belgian club Anderlecht looks assured of a spot in the playoffs for the lucrative group phase after crushing Sivasspor 5-0 in Brussels with Tom de Sutter scoring twice against the Turkish league runners-up. Sparta, Czech first division runner-up, was beaten in both legs by Panathinaikos in the third qualifying round last season but was the better side throughout on Tuesday as it built a healthy lead to take to the Greek capital next week. Jan Holenda and Kamil Vacek gave Sparta a two-goal advantage and new signing Djibril Cisse missed a penalty for the visitors before the break. Dimitris Salpingidis did pull a goal back for Panathinaikos with just over 20 minutes remaining but Lubos Kalouda struck four minutes from time to make Sparta favourites to progress. Israel's Maccabi Haifa is favorite to go through after securing a 0-0 draw at Kazakhstan champion FK Aktobe while it was also goalless between Azerbaijani champion FK Baki and its Bulgarian counterpart Levski Sofia. Eleven more third qualifying round ties take place on Wednesday with Celtic's clash against Dinamo Moscow in Glasgow the pick of the bunch. Okada Japan coach Takeshi Okada will coach Japan at least until the end of the 2010 World Cup Finals, the country's soccer supremo said on Tuesday. “Okada has been trying to give Japanese football its own identity,” Japan Football Association (JFA) president Motoaki Inukai said. “Changing the coach (before the World Cup) would have a destabilising effect.” Japan has already qualified for the 2010 World Cup Finals in South Africa and Okada raised eyebrows by targeting a spot in the semifinals. His best player Shunsuke Nakamura, however, undermined his coach by insisting such forecasts were dangerous. Japan exited the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany with barely a whimper under Brazilian Zico after a blast of similar rhetoric from the coaching staff going into the tournament. Okada led Japan to its first World Cup Finals in 1998 during his first spell in charge but they lost all three games. Inukai also said Japan had been invited to play an away friendly in Argentina as part of their build-up for next year's World Cup. Japan play the Netherlands and Ghana away before facing Scotland and Togo at home, followed by a trip to World Cup hosts South Africa before the end of the year.
