Barcelona looking good

Barcelona all but sealed their passage past Panionios in the UEFA Cup after a 3-0 second round first leg win in Greece.

The Catalan giants put nine past Matador Puchov in the previous round and they possessed too much quality for Panionios.

Luis Garcia put them ahead before turning provider as substitute Patrick Kluivert, on as an interval replacement for Javier Saviola, doubled their advantage with his first touch. Midfielder Xavi completed the rout in the final minute.

Lens’ impressive run of form came to a shuddering halt in Turkey as Joel Muller’s men crashed to a 3-0 defeat against Gaziantepspor.

Recent wins over Ligue 1 big guns Lille, Lyon and Paris St Germain had given weight to the argument that Lens could be dangerous opposition in Europe this season.

But Devran Ayhan gave Gaziantepspor a 43rd minute lead and second half strikes from Riadh Bouazizi and Zdrakov Lazarov settled the outcome.

Spartak Moscow were also emphatic winners, 4-0 against Dinamo Bucharest.

Mihailo Pjanovic netted twice for Spartak with Maxym Kalinichenko and Aleksandr Pavlenko also getting on the scoresheet.

To complete a miserable night for Dinamo, midfielder Ionut Badea was sent off a minute from full time.

There was no such excitement in Utrecht as the home side fought out a dour goalless draw with Auxerre.

There were no goals either in Valerenga’s meeting with Wisla Krakow – the sides meeting in three weeks time in Poland with a clean slate.

Slavia Prague needed a last-minute equaliser from Pavel Fort to salvage a 2-2 draw from their first clash with Levski Sofia in the Czech capital.

Pavel Kuka gave the hosts a 23rd-minute lead only for Georgi Ivanov to level 13 minutes from full-time. Martin Muller scored an own goal in the 90th minute to hand Levski the initiative before Fort’s last-gasp strike.

Dinamo Zagreb lost 2-0 at home to Dnipro and Sporting Lisbon drew 1-1 away to Genclerbirligi.