[UEL] Roma held; Genoa and Lazio win

Roma will be kicking themselves after throwing away a two goal advantage at Kosice in the first leg of their UEFA Europa League play-off tie, while Genoa and Lazio both recorded comfortable victories.

Slovakian outfit Kosice took a shock fifth minute lead through Marko Milinkovic before Roma hit back via a Francesco Totti brace, the first a penalty, and a goal from Jeremy Menez.

But the home side refused to give up and a Jan Novak brace, the first also from the spot, in the last 20 minutes earned a 3-3 draw, to ensure there will be all to play for in the Eternal City in next week's return.

The Giallorossi's city neighbours Lazio enjoyed a much more straightforward evening, putting themselves in pole position for a place in the group phase with a 3-0 triumph over Elfsborg.

Aleksandar Kolarov and Mauro Zarate put the Biancocelesti, who lifted the Supercoppa Italiana trophy in Beijing a fortnight ago, in full control at the interval.

Stefano Mauri added a third to complete the scoring at the Stadio Olimpico ahead of next week's trip to Sweden.

Genoa made a winning return to European football after 18 years as they eased to a 3-1 triumph over Odense.

The Grifone, who finished fifth in Serie A last term, opened the scoring after just nine minutes when Chris Sorensen turned the ball into his own net.

Luciano Figueroa bagged a double in the opening 12 minutes of the second half to extend Genoa's lead, but Gian Piero Gasperini's side could not avoid conceding an away goal through Rurik Gislason just two minutes later.

The Italian trio will now be concentrating on Sunday's opening day in Serie A before planning for next Thursday's second legs.

UEFA Europa League 2009-10
Play-off Round, First Leg
Thursday 20 August
Ajax 5-0 Slovan Bratislava
Athletic Bilbao 3-2 Tromso
Baku 1-3 Basle
BATE Borisov 0-1 Litex Lovech
Benfica 4-0 Vorskla Poltava
Bnei Yehuda Tel-Aviv 0-1 PSV Eindhoven
Brondby 2-1 Hertha Berlin
CSKA Sofia 0-0 Dinamo Moscow
Dinamo Bucharest 0-3 Slovan Liberec
Dinamo Zagreb 4-0 Hearts
Everton 4-0 Sigma Olomouc
Fulham 3-1 Amkar Perm
Galatasaray 5-0 Levadia Tallinn
Genk 1-2 Lille
Genoa 3-1 Odense
Guingamp 1-5 Hamburg
Lazio 3-0 Elfsborg
Lech Poznan 1-0 Club Brugge
Maribor 0-2 Sparta Prague
Metallurg Donetsk 2-2 Austria Vienna
Kosice 3-3 Roma
NAC Breda 1-3 Villarreal
Nacional 4-3 Zenit St. Petersburg
PAOK Salonika 1-1 Heerenveen
Partizan Belgrade 1-1 MSK Zilina
Rapid Vienna 1-0 Aston Villa
Sarajevo 1-1 CFR Cluj
Sion 0-2 Fenerbahce
Sivasspor 0-4 Shakhtar Donetsk
Slavia Prague 3-0 Crvena Zvezda
Stabaek 0-3 Valencia
Steaua Bucuresti 3-0 St. Patricks
Sturm Graz 1-1 Metalist Kharkiv
Teplice 1-2 Hapoel Tel-Aviv
Trabzonspor 1-3 Toulouse
Twente 3-1 Qarabag
Vaslui 2-1 AEK Athens
Werder Bremen 6-3 Aktobe

Source: UEFA