PARIS, July 30, (Agencies): European giants Liverpool and Juventus began life under new coaches with victories in the first legs of their Europa League third qualifying round ties on Thursday.
A David Ngog brace gave Roy Hodgson’s Liverpool a 2-0 victory at Macedonian minnows Rabotnicki, while Luigi Delneri oversaw an equally straightforward 2-0 win for the Italian side at Irish team Shamrock Rovers. Liverpool and Juve have had to undergo the ignominy of the Europa League preliminary rounds after each finished seventh in their respective leagues last season, prompting managerial changes at both Anfield and the Stadio Olimpico.

With 10 World Cup players including Steven Gerrard, Joe Cole and Javier Mascherano all short of fitness, Hodgson fielded a team partly made up of fringe players at the Filip II Arena in Skopje.
Liverpool took the lead in the 17th minute when Lucas picked out Ngog and the Frenchman capitalised on Egzon Belica’s slip to dink the ball over goalkeeper Martin Bogatinov and then tap it into the empty net.
Ngog made it 2-0 shortly before the hour when he crisply volleyed in Martin Kelly’s right-wing cross from six yards out.

Juve boss Delneri handed first competitive starts to a number of new signings, including goalkeeper Marco Storari, former Bari centre-back Leonardo Bonucci and on-loan winger Pepe.
Brazilian-Italian striker Amauri put the Serie A side ahead in the third minute in Dublin, finishing deftly after a sharp one-two with Diego, before netting his second with 15 minutes to play. “In the end I couldn’t have asked any more of the players.”
Elsewhere, Sporting Lisbon won 1-0 at Norway’s Nordsjaelland and French side Montpellier prevailed 1-0 at Gyor of Hungary.

A goal from new signing Dennis Rommedahl gave Greek giants Olympiakos a 2-1 win at home to Israelis Maccabi Tel-Aviv but Galatasaray let slip a 2-0 lead in the last 10 minutes to draw 2-2 against Serbia’s OFK Beograd in Istanbul.

The second legs take place on August 3-5, with heavyweights such as Manchester City, Napoli, Borussia Dortmund and Porto all due to enter the competition in the following round. Portugal’s Maritimo hammered Bangor City 8-2 in the former match in Funchal while the latter saw Russian Cup runners-up Sibir Novosibirsk beat Apollon Limassol 1-0 to record their first-ever win in European club competition.
Senegal’s Baba Diawara and Brazilians Tcho and Danilo all notched two goals apiece for Maritimo, who scored five times in the last 15 minutes. Captain Aleksei Medvedev scored in the 74th for Sibir, who are based more than 3,000 miles from Moscow and became the most easterly club to appear in European competition.

“The victory is the first for Sibir in Europe, and I would like to congratulate the team and the city,” said coach Igor Kriushenko.
Bundesliga side VfB Stuttgart overcame the absence of German internationals Cacau, Serdar Tasci and Sami Khedira, still on holiday after the World Cup, to triumph 3-2 at Norwegian club Molde with an 82nd minute winner from substitute Martin Harnik.
However, coach Christian Gross was not pleased with his side who twice squandered the lead. “We have to play with more focus to make it easier for ourselves,” he said.
Dutch side AZ Alkmaar beat Gothenburg 2-0, Sporting Lisbon won 1-0 at Danish side Nordsjaelland while Galatasaray were held 2-2 at home by OFK Belgrade, who scored in the last 10 minutes through substitutes Milos Krstic and Nenad Injac.

There was crowd trouble in Romania when about 500 supporters of Croatia’s Hajduk Split were banned from attending the match at Dinamo Bucharest following pre-game clashes.
Romania state news agency Agerpres said 25 Croat supporters and 25 Romanians clashed in front of a central shopping mall in Bucharest, with one supporter severely wounded. Dinamo won 3-1.