Dream start for Advocaat; West Ham, BATE falter

Dick Advocaat got off to a dream start as Fenerbahçe coach as the UEFA Europa League play-off first legs were completed.

Advocaat, whose appointment by the Turkish club was only confirmed on Wednesday, was given a nice welcome present as substitute Miroslav Stoch struck twice in a 3-0 win at home to Swiss outfit Grasshoppers.

• Who awaits in the group stage?

Panathinaikos, AZ Alkmaar, Anderlecht, PAOK, Rapid Wien and Krasnodar also seemingly have one foot in the group stage after similarly commanding victories, but it did not go all the way of the so-called bigger names.

Lokomotiva Zagreb came from 2-0 down v Genk©AFP

West Ham were held to a draw by Astra Giurgiu, the Romanian team that knocked them out of this competition 12 months ago. Meanwhile BATE Borisov, UEFA Champions League group stage contenders in five of the last six seasons, have it all to do after losing 2-0 at Astana. Gent came from behind to beat Shkëndija late on.

It was a better night for this term's European newcomers. Domenico Berardi was on target again as Sassuolo thumped former European champions Crvena zvezda 3-0, Osmanlıspor won away while SønderjyskE kept Sparta Praha at bay.

The last goal of the evening came from Louis Schaub, who claimed the fourth hat-trick in qualifying this season to round off a 4-0 success for Rapid Wien at Trenčín. The 21-year-old forward has now scored 11 times in ten appearances in UEFA Europa League qualifiers.

The second legs are next Thursday, with the group stage draw taking place at 13:00CEST the following day in Monaco, streamed live on UEFA.com.

Astana 2-0 BATE Borisov
Dinamo Tbilisi 0-3 PAOK
SønderjyskE 0-0 Sparta Praha
Krasnodar 4-0 Partizani
Midtjylland 0-1 Osmanlıspor
AEK Larnaca 0-1 Slovan Liberec
Austria Wien 2-1 Rosenborg
Qäbälä 3-1 Maribor
Slavia Praha 0-3 Anderlecht
Göteborg 1-0 Qarabağ
Maccabi Tel-Aviv 2-1 Hajduk Split
İstanbul Başakşehir 1-2 Shakhtar Donetsk
Fenerbahçe 3-0 Grasshoppers
Panathinaikos 3-0 Brøndby
Vojvodina 0-3 AZ Alkmaar
Lokomotiva Zagreb 2-2 Genk
Astra 1-1 West Ham
Gent 2-1 Shkëndija
Sassuolo 3-0 Crvena zvezda
Arouca 0-1 Olympiacos
Trenčín 0-4 Rapid Wien
Wed: Beitar Jerusalem 1-2 St-Étienne