Juventus marked their return the continental football with an emphatic win, while Barcelona have also put one foot in the Champions League group stage. Italian giants Juventus all but assured their path into group stages with a 4-0 thrashing of Slovakian side Artmedia Petrzalka at the Stadio Delle Alpi.

Goals from Mauro Camorenesi (pictured), Alessandro del Piero, Giorgio Chiellini and a final-minute strike from Nicola Legrottaglie leave the club almost certain to progress into their first European campaign for two years.

2006 winners Barcelona put the disappointment of finishing third in La Liga last season behind them by beating Wisla Krakow 4-0 at the Camp Nou in Pep Guardiola’s first game as coach.

Striker Samuel Eto’o opened the scoring on 17 minutes before UEFA’s Euro 2008 Player of the Tournament Xavi doubled the lead seven minutes later.

Thierry Henry put the gloss on the scoreline with a goal in the second half before Eto’o added his second and Barca’s fourth.

Guardiola had only said on Tuesday that he had changed his mind and would hang on to transfer-listed Eto’o and the Cameroon striker duly responded with his brace.

Ukrainian side Dinamo Kiev chalked up four goals on their trip to Spartak Moscow.

After going behind to a goal from Nikita Bazhenov after just four minutes, Ismael Bangoura equalised before Artem Milevskiy put the visitors in front on the stroke of half-time.

Both players added another after the break to secure a comfortable win for the visitors.

The biggest shock of the night came in Cyprus, where Anorthosis Famagusta beat Greek side Olympiacos 3-0.

Vasilis Torosidis put the ball in his own net after just five minutes to give the home side the lead, with Polish striker Lukasz Sosin and French midfielder Vincent Laban also scoring to give the Greek side - who reached the last 16 last season - a mountain to climb in the return leg.

Schalke 04 take a slender advantage into their second leg encounter with Atletico Madrid after beating the Spanish side 1-0 in Germany, with Christian Pander getting the only goal.

Galatasaray had to fight back from 2-0 down to secure a 2-2 draw at home to Steaua Bucharest.

Goals from Darjo Moreno and Banel Nicolita put the visitors ahead before the Turkish giants hit back with a double from former Blackburn striker Shabani Nonda.

FBK Kaunas, the side that knocked Rangers out of the previous round, lost 2-0 away to Bruce Rioch’s AaB Aalborg courtesy of goals from Caca and Jeppe Curth.

Darjo Srna and Jadson gave Shakhtar Donetsk a two-goal advantage going into the second leg against Dinamo Zagreb, while former Liverpool man Bruno Cheyrou scored the only goal at Brann to give Marseille an away goal advantage for their return fixture.

Last season’s quarter-finalists Fenerbahce were made to work for their 2-2 draw away to Partizan Belgrade.

Striker Veljko Paunovic scored a brace within 15 minutes to give the home side the lead, before a penalty from Alex and a goal from Dani Guiza on his competitive debut drew the Turkish side level.

Panathinaikos won 2-1 at Sparta Prague thanks to an own goal from Stepan Kucera and a strike from Simao, with Czech international striker Marek Kulic’s goal putting the home side on level terms for half an hour in between.

Elsewhere Vladimir Rzhevskiy’s goal on the hour made sure BATE left Levski Sofia with a 1-0 win and Levski coach Velislav Vutsov then resigned immediately after the match; while Portuguese side Guimaraes failed to make the most of home advantage as they played out a 0-0 draw with Swiss side Basle. (Tony Mabert / Eurosport)

Tags: champions league results, Champions League Results - Qualifying Round, cl qualifying round, Fresh Football News

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