Former champions Bayern Munich of Germany and Ajax Amsterdam of the Netherlands started their UEFA Cup campaigns with respective 1-0 wins in Thursday's first round first leg matches.

Italy striker Luca Toni scored the lone goal for Bayern against Belenenses in the 34th minute, a result put Belenenses in belief to play against the four-times European champions in the second leg in Portugal in two weeks.

Bundesliga rivals Bayer Leverkusen fared better in another Germany/Portugal clash, beating Uniao Leiria 3-1 at home.

Ajax won at Dynamo Zagreb as Dennis Rommedahl beat keeper GeorgKoch to score the winner from a pass by strike partner Klaas Jan Huntelaar just after the hour mark.

However, English Premier League clubs had mixed fortunes.

Tottenham Hotspur dumped Anorthosis Famagusta of Cyprus 6-1 at White Hart Lane, Everton striker Andy Johnson missed two penalties in a 1-1 home draw with Ukraine's Metalist Kharkiv, who finished with nine men.

Blackburn Rovers lost 2-0 at Larissa while Bolton Wanderers, bottom of the Premier League, drew 1-1 at Rabotnicki Skopje of Macedonia.

Spurs killed their match with three goals in three minutes just before the break, with Michael Dawson, Robbie Keane and Darren Bent setting up a victory that will almost certainly put them into the group stage.

Greece had a particularly good night as its five sides, including AEK Athens and Panathinaikos, all won.

In other games, Luis Garcia scored twice for Atletico Madrid in a 4-0 rout of Turkey's Erciyesspor, Spartak Moscow scored a 5-0 win over Sweden's Haecken, and another former European champions Red Star Belgrade won 1-0 at Groclin Grodzisk of Poland.

(Xinhua News Agency September 21, 2007)