Werder Bremen have one foot in the Uefa Cup Last 16 after a 3-0 win over Ajax.
Werder Bremen have one foot in the Uefa Cup Last 16 after a consummate 3-0 first leg win over 10-man Ajax.
Ajax were already facing an unenviable trip and their task was made all the more difficult when Olaf Lindenbergh was dismissed for two quickfire bookings after just 23 minutes.
Following a first half of dogged Dutch defending, Per Mertesacker broke the deadlock in the 48th minute - the defender reacting quickest to convert a Torsten Frings corner.
It was 2-0 just six minutes later, as Naldo headed home another corner from Frings and the Germany international then scored his team's third goal himself on 71 minutes.
Fabrizio Miccoli's last-gasp winner saw Benfica claim a 1-0 win over Dinamo Bucharest. The Italian fired home from a Manuel Rui Costa cross with just seconds left on the clock to give his team the all-important advantage.
Espanyol are also in pole position in their tie with Livorno following a 2-1 win in Italy.
Walter Pandiani gave the visitors the lead from the penalty spot in the 28th minute after Ito had been fouled by Fabio Galante.
Moha doubled his team's lead shortly before the hour mark when he drove in left-footed, but Galante gave hope to the Serie A side ahead of next week's second leg when he headed home a Dario Passoni corner eight minutes from time.
Elsewhere, Sammy Traore's header (45) and Bernard Mendy's shot from distance (88) gave Paris Saint Germain an excellent 2-0 win at AEK Athens.
Fenerbahce staged an impressive second-half fightback to draw 3-3 with AZ Alkmaar and keep alive their hopes of progression.
The Dutch Eredivisie side were the first to strike when Demy De Zeeuw converted Maarten Martens's pass in the 15th minute, but the hosts went in level at half-time after Temur Metin drilled home from the edge of the penalty area in the 28th minute.
AZ took a firm grip of proceedings in the second half, however, with two goals in a minute midway through the half.
Nourdin Boukhari's emphatic left-footed strike from outside the area restored the visitors' lead in the 62nd minute, and, less than 60 seconds later, Julian Jenner also shot from distance to stun the Turkish crowd.
To the hosts' credit, they replied almost immediately through Tuncay Sanli's opportunistic strike (67).
Metin then grabbed his second goal of the game a quarter of an hour from the end when his left-foot shot found the top corner of the goal to give the hosts hope ahead of the second leg.
Bordeaux and Osasuna played out a 0-0 draw in France to leave their Uefa Cup last 32 tie hanging firmly in the balance.
The Ligue 1 side had dropped out of the UEFA Champions League before being drawn against their Spanish opponents, but could not find a way through at Stade Chaban-Delmas.
2005 Uefa Cup winners CSKA Moscow were also held to a 0-0 home draw to Israeli side Maccabi Haifa.
On-loan West Ham United striker Yaniv Katan hit the post for Maccabi, in what turned out to be the best chance of the game that had to be staged in Vladikavkaz, as Moscow was deemed too cold a venue to play in at present.
The game between Shakhtar Donetsk and Nancy, however, did yield some goalmouth action, finishing as it did with a 1-1 draw.
January signing Marc Antonie-Fortune gave the French side the lead, and an important away goal, with nine minutes to go when he slotted home from inside the box.
However, Shakhtar hit back inside three minutes when Croatian international Dario Srna converted Andrei Vorobei's cross.
The Ukrainians suffered a potentially telling blow in injury time when influential midfielder Anatolii Tymoschuk was shown a second yellow card.
Click below for match summaries:
Bordeaux 0-0 Osasuna
CSKA Moscow 0-0 Maccabi Haifa
Shakhtar Donetsk 1-1 Nancy
Fenerbahce 3-3 AZ Alkmaar
Werder Bremen 3-0 Ajax
AEK Athens 0-2 Paris Saint Germain
Livorno 1-2 Espanyol
Benfica 1-0 Dinamo Bucharest
