American midfielder Sacha Kljestan scored in his European Champions League debut, helping Belgium's Anderlecht win 3-1 at Wales' The New Saints in the first leg of the third qualifying round on Tuesday night.
Kljestan scored the game's first goal in the seventh minute, He was acquired in June from Major League Soccer and Chivas USA. The 24-year-old had 15 goals and 33 assists in 114 games for Chivas USA over four seasons and was the team's most valuable player in 2008.
He was on the 30-man preliminary World Cup roster before getting cut when it was trimmed to 23. Kljestan has 24 international appearances and played for the U.S. at the 2008 Olympics. Kljestan also played in Anderlecht's 1-0 win over Ghent in the Belgian Super Cup last Friday,
Also Tuesday, Andriy Shevchenko scored in Dynamo Kiev's 3-0 victory over Belgium champion Ghent.
In Cyprus, Omonia Nicosia held Austrian champion Salzburg to a 1-1 draw. That was also the score in Lovech's match against Slovakian side Zilina in Bulgaria.
Zenit St. Petersburg was held to a 0-0 draw in Romania by Unirea Urziceni, while Sparta Prague beat Poland's Lech Poznan 1-0.
The winners advance to a playoff next month to reach the 32-team group stage.
SOURCE: The Associated Press
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