Former champions sound intent

Former champions FC Bayern München and FC Barcelona cruised to comfortable victories in their UEFA Champions League third qualifying round first-leg ties last night.  

United fall
But while the German and Spanish giants gave the 16 sides waiting for them in the first group stage a clear taster of what is to come this season, the champions from 1999, Manchester United FC, were undone by Zalaegerszegi TE of Hungary after a last-gasp strike from substitute Béla Koplárovics.

Old rivals
While United were faltering, their old rivals Bayern all but clinched their place in the first group stage with an emphatic 3-0 away win against FK Partizan, Michael Tarnat, Jens Jeremies and Claudio Pizarro all on target. Barcelona did the same with a 3-0 defeat of Legia Warszawa. Frank de Boer and Philip Cocu struck for the Catalan club either side of a goal for substitute Juan Riquelme, the Argentinian striker brought in with the unenviable task of replacing Rivaldo.

Misfiring Milan
Like United, Milan AC's place in the next stage is not yet secure after they only managed a 1-0 win against Czech champions FC Slovan Liberec at the San Siro. Milan opted not to give a debut to FIFA World Cup winner Rivaldo and certainly could have done with him as they struggled to break down the well-organised visitors, Filippo Inzaghi eventually scoring the only goal of the game just after the hour.

Tough night
Their city rivals Internazionale FC also had a tough night, drawing 0-0 with Sporting Clube de Portugal, but they will now fancy their chances of qualifying in their home leg in two weeks' time. Club Brugge KV take a slight advantage back to Belgium after grabbing an away goal in their 1-1 draw with FC Shakhtar Donetsk despite going down to ten men. A late penalty from Timmy Simons levelled the tie after the Ukrainian champions had taken the lead through Nigerian international Julius Aghahowa

Celtic scare
Former European champions Celtic FC should also have done enough after coming back from an early scare to beat FC Basel 3-1 in Glasgow. Argentinian striker Christian Giminez stunned the 55,000 Celtic Park crowd with a goal for the Swiss champions after only two minutes, but Celtic took the win with strikes from Henrik Larsson, Chris Sutton and Mohamed Sylla.

Pole position
FC Dynamo Kyiv beat PFC Levski Sofia 1-0 away, as did Newcastle United FC at FK Zeljeznicar, while Rosenborg BK edged the all-Scandinavian meeting with Brøndby IF, the Norwegians also winning 1-0. FC Lokomotiv Moscow's 2-0 advantage over Grazer AK after the first leg in Austria puts the Russians in an almost impregnable position.