LONDON, Aug 24: Martin Kelly’s pass bounced into the goal off the leg of Andy Webster in the 78th minute giving Liverpool a 1-0 win at Hearts while Javier Zanetti made his 800th appearance for Inter Milan in the Italians’ 2-0 win at Vaslui in their Europa League play-off round first-legs on Thursday.
Elsewhere, a Newcastle side shorn of several familiar faces survived sweltering heat to hold Greek side Atromitos to a 1-1 draw, former European champions Marseille won 2-1 at Moldova’s Sheriff Tiraspol with Andre-Pierre Gignac bagging the winner and Athletic Bilbao, who lost to Atletico Madrid in last season’s all-Spain final, won 6-0 at home against HJK Helsinki.
Liverpool needed an own goal at Tynecastle to see off Hearts in the absence of several first teamers, including England forward Andy Carroll — persistently linked with a return to Newcastle.
Carroll, nursing a sore hamstring, was not even on the bench as coach Brendan Rodgers fielded Fabio Borini and Raheem Sterling in attack.
The Reds also left out Steven Gerrard, Luis Suarez, Martin Skrtel and Glen Johnson with Manchester City to visit in the league on Sunday.
Liverpool made the breakthrough when Kelly sent in a challenging cross from the right which Borini did not connect with only for the unfortunate Webster to deflect into his own net.
Newcastle were playing in Europe for the first time in five years but coach Alan Pardew made nine changes from the side which beat Tottenham in their opening Premier League match at the weekend to give fringe players some game time.
The new faces included Adam Campbell, a second half substitute who became the Magpies’ youngest European debutant at 17 years and 236 days — 64 days younger than former favourite Andy Carroll when he played in Palermo in 2006.
Another getting a rare game was former first choice keeper Steve Harper, who at 37 was handed a start with Dutch international Tim Krul giving way.
Harper was unable to keep a clean sheet as German striker Denis Epstein gave the hosts the lead on 24 minutes before Ryan Taylor fired home a free kick in first-half stoppage time to give Newcastle a good chance of reaching the group stage with the home leg to come.
In Romania, Inter Milan beat Vaslui after goals by Esteban Cambiasso in the 23rd and Rodrigo Palacio in the 73rd but the night was all about Zanetti.
The 39-year-old Argentine began his Inter career 17 years ago, playing in a 1-0 Serie A win over Vicenza on Aug. 27, 1995, after joining from Banfield, an unfashionable Buenos Aires club. Since then he has won five Serie A titles, four Italian Cups, one Champions League, one UEFA Cup and one Club World championship.
Fellow Italian side Lazio won by the same margin at Slovania’s Murta with Brazilian Hernanes and veteran German Miroslav Klose netting.
Russian club Anzhi Makhachkala, who have splurged millions on players like Cameroon forward Samuel Eto’o and Dutch coach Guus Hiddink, beat AZ Alkmaar 1-0 with a second-half goal from Ivorian forward Lacina Traore.
The match was played in Moscow after UEFA prevented Anzhi from playing at their base in the violence-plagued Dagestan region for security reasons.
Japanese star Keisuke Honda scored the only goal for his Russian outfit CSKA Moscow in a 1-0 win at Sweden’s Solna while Scotland’s Motherwell found Spain’s Levante too hot to handle, going down to goals from Juanlu and Nabil El Zhar.
Neftchi Baku from Azerbaijan achieved a 1-1 draw at home to APOEL Nicosia, who reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League last season.
Norway’s Tromso, based inside the Artic circle, produced a shock 3-2 win over Serbia’s Partizan Belgrade.
In Greece, riot police used tear gas to separate fans of PAOK Salonica and Rapid Vienna of Austria, where the Greeks won 2-1 after kick-off was delayed for several minutes.
In other games, Hannover won 5-3 at Poland’s Slask Wroclaw, Norway’s Molde recorded a 2-0 home win over the Netherlands’ Heerenveen while their compatriots Rosenborg drew 1-1 at Poland’s Legia Warsaw.—Agencies