Football
ESPN staff 9y

Ludogorets lose, APOEL held as second round of qualifying begins

Two of last season's Champions League group-stage underdogs got off to a rough start in the first leg of the second qualifying round on Tuesday.

Bulgarian champions Ludogorets Razgrad, who beat Basel and held Liverpool to a draw a year ago, lost at home to Milsami 1-0.

Alexandru Antoniuc scored the only goal for the Moldovan champs in the 41st minute.

Meanwhile, Cypriot champions APOEL, quarterfinalists in 2012, were held to a goalless draw at home by Vardar of Macdeonia.

The news was a little better for Maribor, who eliminated Celtic in the playoff round last year before managing group-stage draws against Chelsea, Schalke and Sporting.

The Slovenian side could only manage a fifth-minute Marko Suler goal in a 1-0 win over Kazakhstan's Astana.

In other games on Tuesday, a second-half goal from Adam Gyurcso condemned TNS to a 1-0 home defeat against Hungarian outfit Videoton.

The Welsh side held their own in the second qualifying round first leg, but were undone 13 minutes from time.

Northern Irish side Crusaders were hammered 4-1 away to Albanian club Skenderbeu.

Bakary Nimanga got the home side going in the 15th minute before veteran Hamdi Salihi added a second in the 34th.

Jordan Owens pulled a goal back three minutes after the half-time break, but Bernard Berisha made it three before Salihi scored his second of the night.

Steaua Bucuresti, European champions in 1986, started their campaign with a 2-0 win over Trencin of Slovakia on goals from Nicolae Stanciu and Jugurtha Hamroun.

Polish champions Lech Poznan got goals in each half from Kasper Haemaelaeinen and Denis Thomalla to win away to Sarajevo 2-0.

After Igiebor Nosa Nosakhro opened the scoring, Maccabi Tel Aviv allowed two late goals to lose to Hibernians 2-1 in Malta, with Jorginho and Jackson on the scoresheet.

Morten Rasmussen scored in the first half as Denmark's Midtjylland defeated Lincoln Red Imps of Gibraltar 1-0.

A 75th-minute penalty by Erfan Zeneli sparked HJK Helsinki to a 3-1 win over FK Ventspils. OusmanJallow provided the winner in the 86th minute, while Atomu Tankaka added a third in stoppage time.

Antons Jemelins' opener for the Latvian side was not enough.

Molde of Norway cruised past Armenia's Pyunik 5-0 thanks to braces by Mohammed Elyounoussi and Ola Kamara, with Mattias Mostrom adding a fifth at the death.

American goalkeeper Ethan Horvath recorded a shut out for Molde.

Partizan Belgrade defeated Dila Gori of Georgia 1-0 on Stefan Babovic's goal in the 83rd minute, which came shortly after Guga Phalavandishvili was sent off.

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