World Soccer

Bob Edme (AP)

Liverpool coach Rafael Benitez praised Andriy Voronin after the Ukraine striker scored to give the English club a 1-0 first leg advantage over Toulouse in the Champions League third qualifying round on Wednesday.

Voronin, who joined Liverpool as a free agent from Germany’s Bayer Leverkusen in the close season, beat Toulouse goalkeeper Nicolas Douchez with a 25-metre drive two minutes from halftime.

Cesc Fabregas and Alexander Hleb both scored as Arsenal sealed a valuable 2-0 away win against Sparta Prague in the opening leg of its third qualifying round clash.

And UEFA Cup holders Sevilla made a positive impact following its step up to Europe’s elite club competition with a 2-0 victory over AEK Athens.

Luis Fabiano and Frederic Kanoute were the scorers for the Spanish hosts.

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Results on Wednesday (15/8): Toulouse (FRA) 0 Liverpool (ENG) 1 (Voronin 43) Spartak Moscow (RUS) 1 (Pavlyuchenko 42) Celtic (SCO) 1 (Hartley 21) Tampere United (FIN) 0 Rosenborg (NOR) 3 (Koppinen 20, Kone 22, 82) Bate Borisov (BLR) 2 (Radkov 40, Bliznuk 90) Steaua Bucharest (ROM) 2 (Goian 58, Dica 84) FK Sarajevo (BIH) 0 Dynamo Kiev (UKR) 1 (Shatskikh 12) Fenerbahce (TUR) 1 (Souza Alex 32) Anderlecht (BEL) 0 Werder Bremen (GER) 2 (Almeida 47, Jensen 85) Dinamo Zagreb (CRO) 1 (Balaban 43) FC Zurich (SUI) 1 (Alphonse 90) Besiktas (TUR) 1 (Delgado 3) Ajax (NED) 0 Slavia Prague (CZE) 1 (Kalivoda 76-pen) Red Bull Salzburg (AUT) 1 (Zickler 10-pen) Shakhtar Donetsk (UKR) 0 Sparta Prague (CZE) 0 Arsenal (ENG) 2 (Fabregas 72, Hleb 90+1) FC Sevilla (ESP) 2 (Luis Fabiano 48, Kanoute 65) AEK Athens (GRE)

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