LONDON, Sept 20: Henrik Larsson-inspired Celtic produced the performance of the night in the UEFA Cup when they whipped Lithuanian side FK Suduva 8-1 in the first leg of their UEFA Cup first round tie Thursday.

Italian pair Lazio and Parma both secured good results too, but it was a mixed night for the English with Chelsea leaking a potentially damaging late away goal and Leeds United labouring to a narrow home victory.

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

At Celtic Park, Sweden striker Henrik Larsson scored a hat-trick in the space of 13 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 they got their failure to qualify for the Champions League well and truly out of their system.

In Rome, Christian Manfredini scored his first goal for Lazio to break the resistance of Greek side Xanthi seconds before halftime.

Three goals in the second half secured a comfortable 4-0 win for one of the competition favourites.

Results:

Primorje 0 Wisla Krakow 2

Litex Lovech 0 Panathinaikos 1

Denizlispor 2 Lorient 0

Dinamo Zagreb 6 Zalaegerszeg 0

Kaernten 0 Hapoel Tel Aviv 4

Ferencvaros 4 Kocaelispor 0

Metalurg Donetsk 2 Werder Bremen 2

FC Midtjylland 1 Varteks 0

Levski Sofia 4 Brondby 1

VfB Stuttgart 4 Ventspils 1

CSKA Moscow 1 Parma 1

Besiktas 2 Sarajevo 2

Legia Warsaw 4 FC Utrecht 1

AIK 3 Fenerbahce 3

Grasshoppers 3 Zenit St Petersburg 1

Hajduk 0 Fulham 1

Maccabi Tel Aviv 1 Boavista 0

Red Star Belgrade 0 Chievo Verona 0

Liberec 3 Dinamo Tbilisi 2

FC Copenhagen 0 Djurgarden 0

Servette 2 Amica Wronki 3

Gomel 1 Schalke 04 4

Zimbru Chisinau 0 Real Betis 2

National Bucharest 3 Heerenveen 0

APOEL Nicosia 2 Graz AK 0

—Reuters

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