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France's six UEFA Cup participants all avoided defeat in Thursday's first round first leg clashes, with Rennes' 3-1 success over Spanish side Osasuna the highlight.
As well as the Rennes win, Auxerre and Monaco both registered home successes, while Strasbourg won away and Marseille and Lens registered draws.
Rennes secured an excellent result at the Stade de la Route de Lorient against Osasuna thanks to two goals from Alexander Frei (pictured).
The Swiss ace has not been in prolific form so far this season, but he rediscovered some of last season’s efficiency tonight.
The most encouraging aspect for Rennes was that both of Frei’s goals came after Olivier Monterrubio passes, suggesting the partnership that worked so well last season could be back on track.
Last season’s top scorer broke the deadlock on 27 minutes, turning in a Monterrubio cross, but Osasuna drew level seven minutes after the break when Savo Milosevic headed past Andreas Isaksson.
Frei was a livewire all night, however, and he handed Rennes the lead against on 75 minutes, before Youssouf Hadji rounded off a good move to score a third goal on 84 minutes.
Missing Mamadou Niang and Franck Ribéry, Marseille lacked firepower against Belgian Cup winners Germinal Beerschot and ultimately had to settle for a goalless draw.
Jean Fernandez’s team set out to keep a second consecutive clean sheet and controlled the game with sufficient ease to suggest they should get the result they need in the second leg in the Stade Vélodrome.
Sergio Koke had Marseille’s best chance in the last minute, but his header was cleared off the line.
Lens registered one of the most disappointing results of the night for French clubs.
Flying high in Ligue 1, Les Sang et Or started well enough against Polish side Groclin Grodzisk, Vitorino Hilton handing them the lead as early as the 13th minute. But Groclin levelled the match a minute later thanks to a Yohan Lachor own goal and the game finished 1-1.
Auxerre did slightly better than Lens, but they still have plenty of work to do after registering a 2-1 win over Levski Sofia at the Stade de l’Abbé Deschamps.
Jacques Santini’s team fell behind to a goal from Levski's French player Cédric Bardon in the 34th minute, but came back strongly in the second period. Romain Poyet headed Johan Radet’s cross home to equalise on 54 minutes, before Philippe Violeau released Luigi Pieroni to score the winner nine minutes from time.
Ligue 1 strugglers Strasbourg produced a solid performance in Austria, winning 2-0 at Grazer AK to put themselves in a strong position.
The Alsace team raced into a lead inside the first minute as, right from the kick off, Alexander Farnerud set up Mickaël Pagis to score.
The home side never recovered from the blow and they conceded a second on the stroke of half-time, Farnerud again the provider, this time setting up Guillaume Lacour.
Finally, Monaco are on course for the second round after they beat Willem II 2-0.
Olivier Kapo opened the scoring in the 24th minute when he turned Emmanuel Adebayor's miscued shot into the net. Adebayor then took advantage of some excellent approach play for Kapo to head into an empty net three minutes into the second half.
The second legs take place on September 29.
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