Mixed fortunes for Israel's representatives in the UEFA Cup

The two Israeli representatives in this season's UEFA Cup competition enjoyed mixed fortunes Thursday: Maccabi Haifa recorded a well-deserved 3-1 home win over French side Auxerre at Bloomfield Stadium in a Group A encounter, while Hapoel Tel Aviv went down 2-0 in Athens to Panathinaikos in their Group G clash.

Maccabi Haifa looked in charge against Auxerre right from the start in Jaffa Thursday night, and Yaniv Katan almost opened the scoring for the home side after just eight minutes with a free kick that flew narrowly wide. Just five minutes later, however, Roni Levy's side took the lead: Alain Masudi picked up a short pass from Roberto Colautti, after some fine work again from Katan, and had no trouble slotting the ball into the Auxerre net to make it 1-0 to Haifa.

Auxerre equalized in the 27th minute, through a Daniel Nicolas header, and continued to apply pressure to the home team for the remainder of the first half, but good work by Nir Davidovitch in the Haifa goal kept the teams level at the break.

The 56th minute of the game saw the start of 120 seconds of Haifa magic, when first Gustavo Bocolli and then Colautti produced wonderful efforts to put their team into what would prove to be an unassailable 3-1 lead, which Haifa preserved until the final whistle.

"It was important to start at home with a win," Haifa coach Levy said after the game, while Katan noted that his team had "proved to everyone that we are good."

In Athens, meanwhile, Hapoel Tel Aviv coach Itzhak Shum suffered a disappointing return to his former club, Panathinaikos, as the Greek club profited from two defensive mistakes to doom the visitors to a 2-0 defeat in their opening UEFA Cup Group G match.

In a match played behind closed doors at the Athens Olympic Stadium, Panathinaikos clinched all three points thanks to a Tal Chen own goal in the 47th minute and a second from Argentine winger Sebastian Romero (63rd minute) following a mix-up in the Hapoel defense.

The hosts broke the deadlock two minutes after half time, as Romero raced on to a Loukas Vintra pass down the right and whipped in a dangerous low cross that Chen turned into his own net as he tried to clear. Panathinaikos looked completely in control from then on, and got its second some 15 minutes later, with Romero profiting from some inauspicious defending by Javier Paez and Tomer Haliva and slotting the ball into Shavit Elimelech's goal from close range.

"We created many chances, but in Europe, when you don't score, you pay the cost of your mistakes," a disappointed Shum said after the game. "We can play a whole lot better."

Elsewhere

In other UEFA Cup action Thursday night, it was: Livorno 2, Rangers 3; Besiktas 0, Tottenham Hotspur 2; Club Brugge 1, Bayer Leverkusen 1; AZ Alkmaar 3, Braga 0; Liberec 0, Sevilla 0; Odense 1, Parma 2; Osasuna 0, Heerenveen 0; Wisla Krakow 1, Blackburn Rovers 2; Basel 1, Feyenoord Rotterdam 1; Austria Vienna 1, Zulte-Waregem 4; Sparta Prague 0, Espanyol 2; Rapid Bucuresti 0, Paris S.G. 0; Eintracht Frankfurt 1, Palermo 2; and Newcastle United 1, Fenerbahce 0.