UEFA Champions League Wrap: Lyon, PSV claim home wins

Lyon and PSV both recorded home victories in the first leg of third round qualifying action in the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday.

With a place in the play-off round of Europe’s premier club competition up for grabs, the stakes were high across Europe.

And French giants Lyon did enough to win, although only 1-0, against Grasshopper of Switzerland.

The first half was goalless, but Lyon, who warmed
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up for the match with a 2-2 friendly draw against Real Madrid last Wednesday, still managed to claim victory.

Serbian defender Milan Bisevac, who has never scored for Lyon since joining from PSG in 2012, was the unlikely scorer, climbing highest to head home Clement Grenier’s free-kick in the 64th minute.

Grasshopper will be pleased they did not concede again though, heading in to the second leg in Zurich.

PSV also won at home, with goals from Memphis Depay and substitute Jurgen Locadia in the final 30 minutes giving them a 2-0 triumph over Zulte-Waregem of Belgium.

Croatian outfit Dinamo Zagreb left it late but beat Sheriff of Moldova 1-0 at home, with Ante Rukavina coming off the bench to the score the game’s only goal with one minute of normal time to play.

Zenit Saint Petersburg of Russia also won 1-0, but their triumph came on the road as they claimed an important win against Nordsjaelland in Denmark.

Substitute Alexander Kerzhakov – who replaced Andrey Arshavin – scored the winner on 49 minutes, converting Hulk’s assist.

Switzerland’s FC Basel beat Maccabi Tel Aviv of Israel 1-0 at home, thanks to Valentin Stocker’s first-half strike, while Austria Vienna triumphed by the same result, toppling Iceland’s FH courtesy of Daniel Royer’s strike.

Viktoria Plzen of the Czech Republic put one foot in the play-off round with a 4-0 thrashing of Estonian outfit Kalju.

Marian Cisovsky scored a hat-trick for the victors while Michal Duris also netted.

Ukrainian forward Marko Devic scored twice for Metalist – taking his scoring run to seven in five matches – as they beat PAOK of Greece 2-0.

Other results saw Steaua Bucharest of Romania win 2-0 at Georgian club Dinamo Tbilisi, while Kazakhstan’s Shakhter Karagandy cruised to a 3-0 win over Albania’s Skenderbeu Korce.

The second legs of all ties will be played in the week commencing August 5.