Shakhtar downed by Fulham as Juve win in Amsterdam

Shakhtar Donetsk lost 2-1 to English Premier League side Fulham in the Europa League round of 32 Thursday but the Ukrainian club scored a vital away goal through Luiz Adriano to remain on track for a second European trophy in succession, dpa reported.

Villarreal could only manage a 2-2 draw at home to VfL Wolfsburg in their first-leg tie while Serie A giants Juventus will be confident of progressing after beating Ajax 2-1 in Amsterdam.

Liverpool struggled for long periods before prevailing 1-0 against Romanian champions Unirea Urziceni thanks to a late goal from David Ngog while SV Hamburg lead PSV Eindhoven by the same scoreline thanks to a first-half Marcell Jansen penalty.

Fulham got off to the perfect start against last year's UEFA Cup winners, when Zoltan Gera sent a shot under the body of goalkeeper Andriy Pyatov after just three minutes.

Luiz Adriano equalized for the visitors on 32 minutes but Bobby Zamora made it 2-1 on 63 minutes with a superb strike from outside the area.

   New Juventus coach Alberto Zaccheroni celebrated his first victory last weekend against Genoa and had Brazilian striker Amauri to thank for the Italian club's second win on the trot.

   Miralem Sulejmani put Ajax in front on 17 minutes but Amauri levelled matters on 28 minutes before netting the winner shortly before the hour mark for Juve, who finished the game with 10 men after the late dismissal of Hasan Salihamidzic.

   Two away goals from Grafite (one a penalty) helped German champions Wolfsburg, who have now gone 13 games without a win, to a draw away to Primera Liga side Villarreal in a game watched by just 8,000 fans.

   Marcos Senna put the home side in front three minutes before the break from a free-kick but Grafite equalized on 65 minutes with a shot from the edge of the area before putting Lorenz-Guenther Koestner's side in front from the spot with six minutes remaining.

   However, within a minute Marco Ruben made it 2-2 to give Villarreal hope of turning the tie around in Germany next week.

   Last year's beaten UEFA Cup finalists Werder Bremen went down 1-0 away to Dutch side Twente Enschede, who claimed victory courtesy of a 30 metre strike from Theo Janssen six minutes before half-time.

   In other action, Standard Liege defeated FC Salzburg 3-2, Lille beat Fenerbahce 2-1, FC Copenhagen lost 3-1 at home to Marseille while Valencia went down 1-0 away to Club Brugge.

   Rubin Kazan stand with one foot in the last 16 after defeating Hapoel Tel Aviv 3-0.

   Aleksandr Bukharov netted a first-half brace for Rubin with goals after 14 and 23 minutes before Sergei Semak completed the scoring for the home side midway through the second half.

Bundesliga bottom club Hertha Berlin drew 1-1 with Benfica, AS Roma crashed 3-2 away to Greek side Panathinaikos and Athletic Bilbao drew 1-1 with Galatasaray.

   On Tuesday, Everton defeated Sporting Lisbon in their first-leg tie at Goodison Park.