Stuttgart stifled at Eintracht

FC Sochaux-Montbéliard 1-0 Stade Rennais FC

Shakhtar coach Mircea Lucescu was present at the Marcel Picot stadium to watch his next UEFA Cup opponents Rennes lose to a last-gasp goal from Benjamin Genghini. The 19-year-old, son of former French international Bernard Genghini, scored a header in added time, just four minutes after coming on as a substitute. Rennes stay eighth despite the setback.

Olivier Monterrubio, Rennes captain and the league's top provider of assists, was rested. Four more key players also missed out; goalkeeper Andreas Isaksson (thigh), full-back Jean-Joël Perrier Doumbé (ankle), Cédric Barbosa (thigh) and Cyril Jeunechamp (cruciate ligament). Midfielder Etienne Didot said: "It was a good game until injury time. We're the most foolish team in the league on set pieces, they have cost us a lot of points. We need to react properly and stop being outrageous."

FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk 2-2 FC Shakhtar Donetsk

Shakhtar fell further adrift of Ukrainian Premier League leaders FC Dynamo Kyiv on Sunday after being held to a 2-2 draw at Dnipro. Brazilian midfielders Fernandinho and Matuzalem scored a goal each to cancel out Oleh Shelayev's opener for the home side, but Shakhtar were denied victory by defender Olexandr Radchenko's long-range effort late on.

Shakhtar were without the Ukrainian league's leading scorer Brandão (knee), as well as defender Tolga Seyhan (ankle) and midfielder Elano Blumer, who is to undergo tests to reveal the nature of his problem. Defender Tomáš Hübschmann is the latest addition to that list after sustaining a knock in Sunday's match. "We've lost points we should not have conceded, despite playing some good football," said coach Mircea Lucescu. "Dnipro were very determined as they were in front of their own fans, but we came closer to the win. We now trail Dynamo by three points, but we will continue our pursuit. The battle is not over."

FC Sportul Studentesc 1-0 AFC Rapid Bucuresti

Rapid’s contrasting fortunes in the league and Europe continued at the weekend as they fell to defeat at Sportul. The result on Sunday came just three days after the victory in Donetsk, which kept up their 100 per cent record in the competition. The only goal of the game against Sportul was scored by Ionut Mazilu ten minutes from time as Rapid slipped to ninth in the standings.

Coach Razvan Lucescu said: "This defeat came at the wrong time, just a few days after an important victory in the UEFA Cup. Obviously, we do not have the capacity to recover fast after such victories. It was obvious that the match against Sportul would be a very hard one, against an ambitious and aggressive team. But we lost because of our mistakes." Lucescu has no injury problems as his team aim to make it three wins out of three against PAOK on Thursday.

PAOK FC 2–0 Akratitos FC

PAOK defeated the Ethniki Kategoria's bottom team Akratitos on Sunday thanks to two second-half goals. After wasting several goalscoring opportunities in the first period, the home team finally broke through in the 74th minute courtesy of Lazaros Hristodoulopoulos before sealing the win in added time with a free-kick from Egyptian substitute Sikabala. The victory kept up the team's unbeaten home record and left them fifth in the table. Coach Georgios Kostikos had been without suspended duo Christos Karypidis and Theodoros Zagorakis while right-back Fatih Akyel was released from his contract by mutual consent last Thursday.

A happy Kostikos said: "I am satisfied with my players’ patience and their smart game. They didn’t lose their nerve when the fans started to boo them, and passed the ball around calmly, until they managed to break the deadlock. They performed very well under pressure and they were rewarded with the victory".

Eintracht Frankfurt 1-1 VfB Stuttgart

Stuttgart salvaged a 1-1 draw on Sunday courtesy of a second half goal from Danijel Ljuboja. The Serbo-Montenegrin international struck midway through the second period to equalise after former Stuttgart striker Ioannis Amanatidis had given the home side the lead on 19 minutes. The visitors had gone into the match missing midfielder Daniel Bierofka and Jesper Grønkjær through injury, although the latter is expected to recover from his thigh problem in the next few weeks. Meanwhile, Grønkjær's Danish international team-mate Jon Dahl Tomasson recovered from the knee injury he sustained in the 2-1 win at PAOK to start.

Coach Giovanni Trapattoni said: "We were very unlucky to fall behind because we had the better chances to take the lead. But the team reacted well and showed great confidence to recover once again. Danijel Ljuboja is in excellent form at the moment and he is a very valuable player for the team."