The first leg of the Round of 32 fixtures of the 2010/11 Europa League got underway on Thursday night with all clubs experiencing fortunes of various natures.

At the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, Dutch club FC Twente gave themselves every chance of reaching the next phase with a 2-0 win over Rubin Kazan. Late goals from Luuk de Jong and Peter Wisgerhoff did the damage as they prepare for the return leg on February 24 at De Grolsch Veste.

Sidney Sam scored a late double to help German outfit Bayer Leverkusen cruise past Ukraine's Metalist Kharkiv 4-0 away from home whilst Dutch Eredivisie giants Ajax Amsterdam also had a strong away win with a 3-0 result over Belgium's Anderlecht.

French outfit Paris Saint-Germain fought back twice to record a 2-2 with BATE Borisov of Belarus whilst Portugal's Benfica overcame a tardy start to defeat Germany's VfB Stuttgart 2-1 at home.

Andriy Shevchenko scored as Dynamo Kiev won 4-1 at Besiktas who saw Ricardo Quaresma sent off as Poland's Lech Poznan did enough to beat Portuguese club Braga 1-0.

Salvatore Aronica saw red as Italian club Napoli played out a scoreless with Villarreal of Spain whilst Swiss champions FC Basel relinquished a two-goal lead to be held to a 2-2 draw by Russian's Spartak Moscow with the home side seeing Xherdan Shaqiri sent from the pitch.

PSV Eindhoven scored two late goals to force a 2-2 draw at Lille as CSKA Moscow scored a handy away goal to defeat PAOK Salonika 1-0.

FC Porto won 2-1 at Sevilla in what is a huge result for the Portuguese side, Sparta Prague and Liverpool played out a goalless draw, Rangers were held to a 1-1 draw by Sporting Lisbon at Ibrox and Young Boys of Berne beat Zenit St Petersburg 2-1 thanks to a late Emmanuel Mayuka goal after Vladimir Bystrov was shown a red card.