Former European champion Juventus and Liverpool won their first games in this season's Europa League Thursday. While Liverpool labored on its return to the second tier of European club football and beat Unirea Urziceni only 1-0 with a late goal, Brazilian striker Amauri scored a header in each half as Juve recovered from a goal down to beat Ajax 2-1 in a rerun of the 1996 final. Spain's four teams failed to earn a single win between them, even with three of them playing at home. Atletico Madrid drew 1-1 with Galatasaray, Athletic Bilbao drew 1-1 with Anderlecht, Villarreal drew 2-2 with Wolfsburg, and Valencia lost 1-0 at FC Brugge. Ajax started aggressively in Amsterdam and Siem de Jong headed wide before Miralem Sulejmani put the home side in the lead in the 17th. Veteran striker Alessandro del Piero started the move that led to Juventus' 32nd-minute equalizer, passing two defenders on the left before picking out Paolo De Ceglie, who crossed to Amauri. Del Piero then set up Amauri again in the 58th. Juventus will be without Hasan Salihamidzic when it defends its lead in next week's second-leg match. The substitute was sent off in the last minute for fouling Christian Eriksen, but Ajax has a more disruptive suspension, with leading scorer Luis Suarez unavailable after a booking for dissent. Liverpool, another of the former European champion now fighting it out in the less prestigious Europa League, was unimpressive against Unirea Urziceni - which, like Liverpool and Juventus, dropped into the tournament following elimination from the Champions League. The English side needed an 81st-minute header by striker David Ngog to beat the visiting Romanian team. Ryan Babel crossed right-footed from the left to another substitute, Daniel Pacheco, and the Spanish youngster headed back across goal for Ngog to knock into the net from close range. Fulham beat Shakhtar Donetsk, the last club to win the UEFA Cup before it was revamped as the Europa League this season, 2-1 in west London. Zoltan Gera and Bobby Zamora scored for Fulham. Everton, the third English club in the competition, beat Sporting Lisbon 2-1 Tuesday. Galatasaray has the edge over Atletico Madrid after Abdul Keita grabbed a valuable away goal in the second half following Jose Antonio Reyes' 23rd-minute free kick for the hosts. Djibril Cisse scored with a minute left to give Panathinaikos a surprise 3-2 win over visiting AS Roma. Russia's Rubin Kazan racked up the biggest win of the day's 15 matches, beating Hapoel Tel Aviv 3-0, while Standard Liege handed Red Bull Salzburg a 3-2 loss. FC Twente beat Werder Bremen 1-0 and Hamburg beat PSV Eindhoven 1-0 as the Netherlands and Germany earned a win each from the two games between the countries, while Hertha Berlin drew 1-1 with Benfica. Marseille and Copenhagen were 0-0 in Denmark until the 71st, when Marseille captain Mamadou Niang scored from a pass by Bakari Kone. Jesper Groenkjaer hit a powerful penalty to equalize seven minutes later but substitute Hatem Ben Arfa and Charles Kabore struck in the last six minutes to give the French side a 3-1 win. Lille beat Fenerbahce 2-1 in the other match. - AP Wigan held by Bolton LONDON - Bolton held Wigan to a 0-0 draw to move one place closer to safety in the Premier League survival race Wednesday. Starting the game next-to-last, Bolton moved up to 18th after capturing a vital point against one of its relegation rivals. Despite failing to score, Wigan also moved up two places to 14th to ease its fears of going down. In the race to gain promotion to the top flight, Newcastle moved three points ahead at the top of the League Championship by coming from behind to beat Coventry 4-1. Newcastle went into the game level on points with West Bromwich Albion which drew 1-1 at Cardiff Tuesday. Wolverhampton Wanderers, meanwhile, have been given a suspended $39,060 fine by the Premier League for fielding a weakened team against Manchester United in December.
