Celtic, Porto and Lazio top UEFA Cup

Bill Barclay, Reuters, London

Celtic scored eight goals, Porto six and Lazio four as some of the UEFA Cup favorites made their class tell in the first leg of their first round games on Thursday.

Sweden striker Henrik Larsson scored a hat-trick in Celtic's 8-1 thrashing of Lithuania's FK Suduva at Celtic Park, while Porto crushed Polonia Warsaw 6-0 in Oporto. Lazio defeated Greek side Xanthi 4-0 in Rome.

But it was a mixed night for the five English clubs with Chelsea leaking a damaging late away goal and Leeds United laboring to a narrow home victory.

Fulham, though, marked its first match in the UEFA Cup with a fine 1-0 win at Hajduk Split. Ipswich Town and Blackburn Rovers had to make do with disappointing draws at home.

At Celtic Park, Larsson scored three goals in the space of 12 first-half minutes as the Scottish champions stormed into a 5-0 lead before halftime.

Suduva were simply overwhelmed and Celtic could have scored several more as it got its failure to qualify for the Champions League out of its system.

In Rome, Christian Manfredini scored his first goal for Lazio to break the resistance of Xanthi seconds before halftime. Three goals in the second half secured a comfortable win.

Manfredini's former club Chievo also earned a useful away draw on their European debut, holding Red Star Belgrade 0-0 in Yugoslavia. Each side missed a penalty.

Parma, UEFA Cup winner in 1995 and 1999, secured a 1-1 draw at CSKA Moscow in Russia. Romanian Adrian Mutu gave them a 53rd- minute lead and although Denis Popov leveled the score 14 minutes later, the Italians are now firm favorites to progress.

Edgaras Jankauskas and Helder Postiga each scored twice in Porto's thumping victory over Polonia. But fellow Portuguese side Sporting Lisbon suffered a 3-1 home defeat by Partizan Belgrade.

Frenchman Steed Malbranque was Fulham's hero in Croatia, snatching the 51st-minute winner against Hajduk Split as Jean Tigana's side, who qualified via the Intertoto Cup, showed they mean business in Europe this season.

At Stamford Bridge, a 90th-minute goal for Viking Stavanger by Englishman Ben Wright shocked Chelsea, who had to settle for a 2- 1 win after goals by Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Enrique De Lucas.

After shocks exits to St Gallen and Hapoel Tel Aviv in the last two seasons, Claudio Ranieri's side now faces a nervous return leg in Norway.

Leeds was denied by some inspired goalkeeping at Elland Road before Alan Smith's 80th-minute winner secured a 1-0 victory over battling Ukrainian side Metalurg Zaporizhzhya.

There were comfortable first leg wins for Spanish sides Celta Vigo and Real Betis, while Schalke 04 of Germany eased to a fine 4-1 win at Gomel in Belarus.

Brazilian World Cup winner Ronaldinho inspired Paris St Germain to an easy 3-0 victory over Hungary's Ujpest in Paris.

Last year's surprise quarter-finalists from Israel, Hapoel Tel Aviv, roared into action with a 4-0 away win at Austrian side Kaernten.

Another Israeli side, Maccabi Tel Aviv, also won impressively, 1-0 against Portuguese side Boavista in a 'home' leg played in Sofia for security reasons.

Greek team Panathinaikos put aside dire domestic form to record a 1-0 victory at Litex Lovech in Bulgaria. Turkey's Fenerbahce led 3-1 at AIK Stockholm but eventually had to settle for a 3-3 draw.