Voronin gives Liverpool crucial win at Toulouse

Andriy Voronin scored his first goal in competition for Liverpool as the five-times European champions made an important step towards the Champions League group stage with a 1-0 victory at Toulouse yesterday.

The Ukraine striker, who joined the Merseysiders as a free agent from Bayer Leverkusen during the close season, struck two minutes from the interval with a clinical 25-metre drive.

The second leg will be played at Anfield in a fortnight's time.

Liverpool, who won their Premier League opener 2-1 at Aston Villa last weekend, started the game with Spain striker Fernando Torres on the bench.

The Reds were the first in action in scorching heat, with a Steven Gerrard free-kick shaving Nicolas Douchez's left post in the third minute.

Toulouse, however, were no pushovers, putting the pressure on the Liverpool defence through midfielder Achille Emana and forward Bryan Bergougnoux.

But Voronin, one of the three Liverpool new signings to start the game with Ryan Babel and Yossi Benayoun, opened the scoring shortly before half-time.

He received a long ball from Peter Crouch before firing it into Douchez's left top corner.

The hosts came close to draw level on the stroke of half-time when Achille Emana's overhead kick went just wide.

Slavia Prague's David Kalivoda converted a 76th minute penalty to seal a stunning 1-0 win at Ajax.

On the hour, Klaas Jan Huntelaar had the chance to give Ajax the lead after Mickael Tavares pulled Luis Suarez down in the area but Martin Vaniak saved the penalty.

Last season, Ajax were kept out of the Champions League by FC Copenhagen following a 3-2 aggregate defeat.

Celtic draw, Arsenal win

Celtic put themselves in a good position to return to the group stage by drawing with Spartak Moscow at the stadium that will host this season's final.

The Scottish champions gained the initiative at the Luzhniki Stadium when Paul Hartley scored a vital away goal, and despite Roman Pavlyuchenko's first-half equaliser they will begin the second leg in Glasgow on August 29 as slight favourites.

Arsenal opened a comfortable two-goal lead over Sparta Prague after a hard-earned victory away at the Czech Republic.

Arsenal, with Tomas Rosicky back to face his former club, had a low-key opening half but played better after the break and opened the score 18 minutes from time when Cesc Fabregas slotted home after a perfect Gael Clichy pass.

Alexander Hleb made it 2-0 with a stoppage-time goal following a counter-attack.