The Dutchman, linked with a move to Wolfsburg this week, struck in first-half injury time before promptly being substituted.

Liverpool should have won more convincingly but Joe Cole's miserable week continued as he had a second-half penalty saved.

New boy Christian Poulsen made his debut for the Reds.

While Mario Balotelli scored in his debut as Manchester City beat Timisoara 1-0 in their Europa League play-off first leg in Romania.

The former Inter Milan striker's registration was only received by UEFA on deadline day.

Balotelli responded by stepping off the bench to sweep the ball home after 72 minutes to put City in the driving seat with the second leg to come at Eastlands next Thursday.

Aston Villa drew 1-1 against Rapid Vienna in the first leg of their tie.

Caretaker boss Kevin MacDonald gave youth a chance as he looked to justify claims from some that he should be given the role vacated by Martin O'Neill on a full-time basis.

Marc Albrighton built on his impressive showing in their Premier League opener against West Ham with an assist for fellow youngster Barry Bannan to net early on in the first half.

However, Atdhe Nuhiu equalised for Rapid and they could well have won it had they not wasted several good chances to head to Villa Park with the lead.

Goals from Efrain Juarez and Georgios Samaras against Utrecht allowed Celtic to take a step closer to the group stages with a 2-0 win.

With the disappointment of their Champions League qualifying defeat to Braga still fresh in the memory, the Hoops were well aware a positive reaction was required against the Dutch outfit.

Juarez, who also netted against Braga at Parkhead, is clearly enjoying the European nights in front of a home crowd and bagged the opener, before Samaras added his own name to the scoresheet to put Celtic in the driving seat ahead of next week's return in Holland.

Tom Hateley's stunning stoppage-time free-kick gave 10-man Motherwell the away goal their enterprise deserved as a 2-1 defeat at Odense left them with every chance of progressing to the group stages.

Odense looked to have inflicted a fatal blow to Well's hopes after Peter Utaka caught them on the break in the 78th minute to add to Chris Sorensen's soft first-half opener.

Steve Jennings was then sent off but Hateley curled into the top corner from 25 yards with a retaken free-kick to send 500 travelling fans into delirium.

Dundee United's hopes of qualifying were left dangling by at thread after they were beaten 1-0 by AEK Athens at Tannadice.

Rafik Djebbour scored after 11 minutes when he slotted home Ignacio Scocco's inviting cross in the first-leg of the qualifying round tie.

After a nervous opening the hosts found their composure as the game wore on but were unable to properly test the AEK rearguard, although Jon Daly could have scored a precious equaliser in the closing stages but failed to find the target with only the goalkeeper to beat.

Welsh champions The New Saints saw their hopes go up in smoke as three goals in the final 10 minutes saw CSKA Sofia claim a 3-0 first leg win.

The visitors had battled hard to give themselves a chance in next week's second leg with goalkeeper Paul Harrison pulling off a stunning save at full stretch to deny Marquinhos a 55th-minute opener.

But CSKA broke their resistance in the 81st minute from a Giuseppe Aquaro header and one minute later Gregory Nelson added the Bulgarians' second.

Spas Delev's strike in injury time all but extinguished New Saints' hopes.

Feyenoord, Porto, Bayer Leverkusen, Getafe and Dinamo Moscow all recorded first-leg wins in the Europa League play-offs on Thursday night.

Dutch side Feyenoord made the most of home advantage in their qualifier against AA Gent as they recorded a 1-0 win.

The hosts were made to work hard for their win, though, and had to wait until the 78th minute before Leroy Fer struck.

Mario Been's team will make a short trip to Belgium hoping to complete the job next week.

A brace from Milan Baros was not enough to give Galatasaray victory as they came from two goals down to draw with Karpaty.

The Ukrainian team raced into the lead through Serhiy Kuznetsov and Sergei Zeniov before Baros popped up twice in the second period to make it 2-2.

Porto gave themselves a strong chance of progression after earning a 3-0 triumph over Genk.

Porto struck with just under half an hour gone as Colombian Falcao found the net with Souza and Fernando Belluschi adding further goals in the second half.

Hajduk Split put Unirea Urziceni to the sword with a 4-1 win. Unirea took the lead but Hajduk roared back with a leveller before three more strikes put them in control in the second period.

Lausanne and Lokomotiv Moscow shared the spoils in a 1-1 draw, while Italians Napoli struck on the stroke of half-time to defeat IF Elfsborg 1-0.

Former Champions League competitors Apoel Nicosia were condemned to a 1-0 defeat in Spain as Getafe's Dani Parejo separated the two sides with his first-half effort.

Hungarian minnows Gyor were swept aside by an experienced and clinical Dinamo Moscow in a 2-0 first-leg reverse.

Lille were unable to register a crucial away goal as their trip to Vaslui finished goalless.

The French team faced an awkward visit to Romania and managed to repel the hosts, but were unable to offer little themselves going forward.

Metalist Kharkiv have one foot in the group stages after they saw off Omonia Nicosia 1-0 in Cyprus.

Former Chelsea midfielder Michael Ballack was among the scorers as Bayer Leverkusen claimed a 3-0 success over Tavriya Symferopol.

Michal Kadlec gave Bayer a dream start by scoring inside the opening minute and he then added the second seven minutes from time.

Ballack then scored his first goal since rejoining Bayer in the summer by converting a last-minute penalty to wrap up the result.

Leverkusen's Bundesliga rivals Borussia Dortmund went one better by producing a devastating first-half display to beat FK Qarabag 4-0 on home soil.

Shinji Kagawa and Lucas Barrios both scored a brace in the first half to leave Dortmund on the brink of reaching the group stage.

CSKA Moscow, who won the Uefa Cup in 2005, were equally as convincing winners after thrashing Anorthosis Famagusta 4-0 at home.

Seydou Doumbia set CSKA on their way with a goal on 13 minutes and he added another seven minutes later.

Winger Zoran Tosic, who moved to Russia from Manchester United in the summer, then matched Doumbia's brace by netting on 48 and 74 minutes.

AZ Alkmaar look likely to claim a place in the group phase after enjoying a 2-0 home win over Aktobe.

Brett Holman provided the 2009 Dutch champions with a 19th-minute lead and Pontus Wernbloom increased the advantage eight minutes later.

Debrecen are another team in a strong position going into next week's second leg after beating Litex Lovech 2-0 in Hungary.

Adamo Coulibaly made the breakthrough midway through the first half and Zsolt Laczko grabbed the second on 33 minutes.

BATE Borisov will be confident heading into the return leg of their tie against Maritimo after a 3-0 home win over the Portuguese side.

All the goals arrived in a 14-minute spell in the second half as Edgar Olekhnovich, Renan Bressan and Alexander Pavlov scored.

Club Brugge came from behind to earn a battling 2-1 home triumph over Dinamo Minsk, with former Tottenham midfielder Jonathan Blondel scoring an 84th minute winner.

Dinamo had earlier taken a sixth minute lead through Stanislav Dragin, only for ex-Stoke full-back Carl Hoefkens to level from the penalty spot on 70 minutes.

It is all to play for between AIK Solna and Levski Sofia after the two sides played out a 0-0 draw in Sweden.

Manuel Arboleda scored after just five minutes as Lech Poznan secured a priceless 1-0 away win over Dnipro.

Paris St Germain are firm favourites to progress in their tie with Maccabi Tel-Aviv after securing a 2-0 victory in the first leg of their play-off encounter.

Peguy Luyindula broke the deadlock for the French giants with just three minutes on the clock and Guillaume Hoarau gave them breathing space on the hour mark.

PSV Eindhoven struggled to get to grips with Sibir Novosibirsk in a contest which saw both sides reduced to 10 men.

Francisco Rodriguez saw red for the Dutch side on 39 minutes and Igor Shevchenko followed him down the tunnel four minutes later.

It was, however, Sibir who took the spoils and a first leg advantage as Aleksandr Degtyarov pounced in stoppage-time to hand them a narrow lead.

There is still all to play for between Slovan Bratislava and Stuttgart, but it is the Germans who hold the upper hand heading into the return leg after a last-minute winner from Martin Harnik saw them take a 1-0 advantage in Slovakia.

Juventus left it late before taking a 2-1 victory from their visit to Sturm Graz.

Leonardo Bonucci had the Serie A giants in front after 16 minutes, but Gordon Schildenfeld appeared to have snatched an equaliser for the hosts eight minutes from the end.

Juve, however, had other ideas and Amauri pounced at the death to ensure that they head back to Italy with their noses slightly in front.

Palermo also did Serie A proud in midweek as they eased past Maribor 3-0.

The floodgates opened once Marko Pridigar was dismissed for the visitors on 35 minutes and Massimo Maccarone stroked home the resulting penalty.

Abel Hernandez added a second moments later and Javier Pastore wrapped up a comfortable night's work for the Italians 13 minutes from time.

Villarreal can afford to relax ahead of next week's second-leg fixtures after they trounced Belarusian minnows Dnepr-Transmash 5-0 at El Madrigal.

It took only 10 minutes for Carlos Marchena to break the deadlock and Santi Cazorla added a second seven minutes later.

There was to be no letting up by the Yellow Submarines throughout the first half and further goals from Borja Valero (35) and Ruben Garcia (44) had them 4-0 up at the interval.

Unsurprisingly, they were unable to repeat those heroics in the second half, but Nilmar was able to step off the bench and grab a fifth on 74 minutes.

PAOK Salonika were also celebrating on Thursday as they saw off Fenerbahce 1-0.

The Greeks prevailed courtesy of a solitary strike from Adelino Vieirinha after 19 minutes.

Steaua Bucharest enjoyed home comforts against Grasshoppers Zurich, with Bogdan Stancu's 71st-minute strike edging the Romanians in front.

They were forced to play over half-an-hour with 10 men after Vickar Vitolo was given his marching orders on 57 minutes, but held on to claim a memorable success.

Arguably the biggest shock of the night came in Portugal as Sporting Lisbon were beaten 2-0 by Brondby.

Jan Dalgas Kristiansen had the Danes in front three minutes before half-time and Ousman Jallou doubled their advantage seven minutes after the restart.

Results

Timişoara 0 - 1 Man. City
Liverpool 1 - 0 Trabzonspor
Rapid Vienna 1 - 1 Aston Villa
Celtic 2 - 0 Utrecht
Sturm 1 - 2 Juventus
Odense 2 - 1 Motherwell
Sibir 1 - 0 PSV
Dundee United 0 - 1 AEK
BATE 3 - 0 Marítimo
PSG 2 - 0 M. Tel-Aviv
Leverkusen 3 - 0 Tavriya
CSKA Moskva 4 - 0 Anorthosis
Slovan Bratislava 0 - 1 Stuttgart
AIK 0 - 0 Levski
Dnipro 0 - 1 Lech
Debrecen 2 - 0 Litex
Omonia 0 - 1 Metalist
Vaslui 0 - 0 Lille
Feyenoord 1 - 0 Gent
Steaua 1 - 0 GC
Galatasaray 2 - 2 Karpaty
Palermo 3 - 0 Maribor
Club Brugge 2 - 1 Dinamo Minsk
Genk 0 - 3 Porto
PAOK 1 - 0 Fenerbahçe
Hajduk Split 4 - 1 Unirea Urziceni
Lausanne 1 - 1 Lokomotiv Moskva
CSKA Sofia 3 - 0 TNS
Napoli 1 - 0 Elfsborg
Getafe 1 - 0 APOEL
AZ 2 - 0 Aktobe
Győr 0 - 2 Dinamo Zagreb
Dortmund 4 - 0 Qarabağ
Sporting 0 - 2 Brøndby
Villarreal 5 - 0 Dnepr