The three British representatives look well placed for qualification through to the final 16 of the Europa League with Manchester City, Liverpool and Rangers on level terms with their opponents after the first leg of matches. They weren’t footballing master-classes but nevertheless a draw will do for Roberto Mancini, Kenny Dalglish and Walter Smith.

City could find no way through the Greek defence

Attack-Minded City Draw Blanks in Greece

Manchester City failed to get a vital away goal in Greece on Tuesday night, but were dominant over a defensive Aris Salonika side. The Greeks maintained their impressive record of zero defeats in 24 home European games, but came close on occasions against an attack-minded City team.

Edin Dzeko spearheaded an attacking trio of Carlos Tevez, David Silva and Shaun Wright-Phillips, but a resolute Aris defence and a wasteful Dzeko resulted in a goalless draw. City’s best chance came early on in the game with Aleksandar Kolarov’s cross finding its way past a host of players and to the feet of Dzeko whose looped shot found its way straight to the Aris keeper. The shot didn’t do justice to the wonderful control in a crowded area from City’s new signing. Another sublime piece of control was once again followed by a poor shot from Dzeko, letting Aris off the hook once again.

Aris’ new signing Daisuke Sakata was their main threat in the first half, but it was a mix up between Gareth Barry and Joe Hart that gave Aris their best chance of the half. With Hart about to clear the ball, Barry stepped in front of the kick, forcing Hart to handle outside the area. As this happened, up stepped Brazilian Neto, whose floated effort sailed past the post.

Aris pushed on in the second half but could only resort to long range efforts with one from Neto forcing a full-stretched Hart to turn it round the post, Aris’ goalkeeper Michalis Sifakis kept his side in the game when he made a wonderful save to deny Dzeko’s header on goal.

With just over 10 minutes left, Roberto Mancini introduced Mario Balotelli into the game. Despite it being his first City appearance since December after a knee injury, he couldn’t break the deadlock. City will be favourites for the second leg in Manchester in two weeks time but Aris looked dangerous when the game opened up and are prone to a shock after disposing of holders Atletico Madrid in the group stage.

Pretty Football from Liverpool, But No End Product

Liverpool and Sparta Prague played out an uneventful goal-less draw last night with the game producing only four shots on target, all from the Czech side.

Liverpool started positively and controlled the early moments of the game with crisp, tidy passing, but this would be the story of the match as David Ngog failed to produce anything of note for the Reds as a lone striker. Steven Gerrard was injured for this match although his build-up play and general presence was not missed with Liverpool now unbeaten in seven games.

Glen Johnson was the one player who threatened the Sparta goal on a couple of occasions. A low drive just before the end of the first half went narrowly wide and was Liverpool’s only effort of note.

Sparta Prague hadn’t played since mid-December due to the domestic leagues winter break and it showed with a very pedestrian performance. With a particularly non-threatening performance from Ngog up front, Sparta were happy to let Liverpool pass the ball around in their own half and sit back for the majority of the game. Manuel Pamic came closest for the Czech side when his shot from a tight angle had to be palmed away by the alert Pepe Reina.

The game livened up a bit when Ngog and Tomas Repka had a coming together, resulting in both players receiving yellow cards, but it wasn’t enough to make a drab match interesting. With no penetration from Liverpool’s attack and the pre-match hype over 16 year old Raheem Sterling failing to materialise, the match ended leaving fans and neutrals hoping for a more lively affair in two weeks time.

Sporting Grab Precious Away Goal in Glasgow

Rangers were one minute away from taking a great result away to Lisbon only for Sporting Lisbon to grab an even more important away goal late in the game.

Steven Whittaker’s header on 66 minutes looked to secure the win, but with 89 minutes gone, Matias Fernandez also headed in to secure the advantage for Sporting heading into the second leg.

It could have been a different result however with Kyle Lafferty spurning golden opportunities deep into injury time and throughout the game.

Sporting dominated the start of the match with Rangers feeling the absence of ball winner Lee McCulloch in midfield. Helder Postiga in particular, nearly put the Portugese in front but his shot, setup by Evaldo Fabiano, was put wide.

Lafferty’s first chance of the game came after El Hadji Diouf released full-back Whittaker, who then crossed for Lafferty; his flicked header floating just wide of the goal.

The game opened up just before half time and continued into the second half with more efforts from Lafferty and Whittaker who were wasteful in front of goal. The deadlock was broken however when Whittaker headed in powerfully from Valdimir Weiss’ corner.

After the opener, Sporting pushed for an equaliser and the important away goal. Ex-Rangers man Pedro Mendes had his shot saved and the follow up effort by Postiga called offside before Fernandez got Sporting the goal they fully deserved. Joao Pereira crossed for substitute Fernandez who matched Whittaker’s header with a bullet header.

Lafferty had three clear chances to win it for Rangers in the dying moments, each of them easily saved by Rui Patrico, meaning it will be a tough task to qualify for the next round for Walter Smith’s team.

Goals, Goals, Goals Elsewhere in Europe

Big wins for Leverkusen, Ajax and Dynamo Kiev, all away from home, means they will be more than confident of going through to the last 16.

Spartak Moscow staged a wonderful comeback with 30 minutes left. After being two down to Basle, 18-year-old Jano Ananidze, the hero for Spartak, scored deep into injury time.

Zenit lost their 100% record in the competition after Young Boys scored a last minute winner in their 2-1 win. It was the same score line in Sevilla where Porto were the victors, and also in Benfica where they beat Stuttgart.

Lech Poznan continue their fine Europa League form with a one nil win against Braga. The Poles’ unlikely run looks set to continue as there were also wins for CSKA Moscow and FC Twente.

The final 3 matches were draws between Lille and PSV, BATE Borisov and PSG and finally Napoli and Villareal.

Europa League Round of 32 Results

Aris Salonika 0-0 Manchester City

Anderlecht 0-3 Ajax

Basle 2-3 Spartak Moscow

BATE Borisov 2-2 Paris SG

Benfica 2-1 VfB Stuttgart

Besiktas 1-4 Dynamo Kiev

FC Metalist Kharkiv 0-4 Bayer Leverkusen

Lech Poznan 1-0 Braga

Lille 2-2 PSV Eindhoven

Napoli 0-0 Villarreal

PAOK Salonika 0-1 CSKA Moscow

Rangers 1-1 Sporting

Rubin Kazan 0-2 FC Twente

Sevilla 1-2 FC Porto

Sparta Prague 0-0 Liverpool

Young Boys 2-1 Zenit St P’sbg