Newcastle won 1-0 at Palermo in the second round of the UEFA Cup group stage on Thursday to end the Sicilian club's three-match winning streak.
Albert Luque headed in a cross by James Milner in the 37th minute for Newcastle, which improved to six points atop Group H after two games.
Eighteen-year-old Newcastle goalkeeper Tim Krul made his club debut after Steve Harper failed a late fitness test, providing two key saves late in the second half.
First, he denied Giuseppe Biava and then got off the ground to stop the follow-up from David Di Michele.
Palermo, second in the Serie A on goal difference behind Inter Milan, beat West Ham twice to eliminate the English Premier League club in the first round, and also beat Eintracht Frankfurt in its opening group game on Oct. 19.
In the other Group H game, Celta Vigo kicked off its campaign with a 1-1 draw with Eintracht Frankfurt. Celta striker Jesus Perera stooped to head home Uruguayan midfielder Fabian Canobbio's cross from the right in the 10th minute.
Midfielder Alexander Huber sidefooted Eintracht's equalizer seven minutes later off Benjamin Koehler's cross from the left. Eintracht was reduced to 10 men in the 59th minute after forward Alexander Meier received his second yellow card.
In Group F, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar scored twice for Ajax Amsterdam in a 3-0 win over Austria Vienna.
Huntelaar opened the scoring in the 35th minute, finishing from close range after Vienna goalkeeper Szabaolcs Safar deflected a header. Edgar Manucharyan made it 2-0 in the 66th.
Huntelaar got his second goal two minutes later, rounding off a pass from Kenneth Perez.
``It was a routine win, but we played well at times, and 3-0 is a good way to start'' said coach Henk ten Cate. ``It won't be easy but we'll get through this group.''
Belgium's Zulte Waregem beat Sparta Prague 3-1 to win its second straight and top the group.
Tottenham beat Club Brugge 3-1 at White Hart Lane off two Dimitar Berbatov goals. Salou Ibrahim put Brugge ahead in the 14th minute, before Berbatov replied three minutes later. Robbie Keane then scored in the 63rd before Berbatov headed in his second in the 73rd to give Tottenham it second straight win and the Group B lead.
Dinamo Bucharest finished with nine men, but beat Besiktas 2-1 in the other Group B match. Adrian Cristea scored for Bucharest in the 21st minute and Deivison Bobo levelled in the 58th minute. Bucharest went ahead in the 87th minute when Claudiu Niculescu converted a penalty _ earned when he was fouled by Besiktas' Gokhan Zan a minute earlier. Zan was sent off for the challenge.
Bucharest's Cosmin Moti also was sent off in the 86th minute for a second yellow card, while teammate Silviu Margaritescu was shown a red in the 90th.
Rangers beat Maccabi Haifa 2-0 with a fifth-minute goal from Nacho Novo and an 89th-minute penalty by Charlie Adam to top Group A with two wins. Kris Boyd had a 48th-minute penalty saved by Maccabi goalkeeper Nir Davidovich.
In the other group match, Livorno earned a 1-1 draw with Partizan Belgrade after goalkeeper Marco Amelia headed in an 88th-minute equalizer from a Dario Passoni free kick. Nenad Mirosavljevic had given Partizan the lead in the 70th.
Moussa Dembele scored twice for AZ Alkmaar in a 5-2 win over Grasshoppers that kept the Dutch club atop Group C. Shota Arveladze, Demy de Zeeuw and Maarten Martens also scored for AZ. Elsewhere in the group, Portugal's FC Braga beat Slovan Liberec 4-0 with goals by Alexandre Gama, Alberto Ricardo Chaves, Ortolan Marcel and a penalty from Carlos Cesinha.
In Group D, goals from Aruna Dinane and Abdoulrazak Boukhari and a 69th-minute penalty from Daniel Cousin gave Lens a 3-1 win. Radivoje Lekic scored twice for OB Odense in a 2-0 win over Heerenveen in the other group game.
Panathiniakos won 1-0 at Mlada Boleslav off a Dimitrios Salpigidis goal in Group G. Hapoel Tel Aviv drew 2-2 with Rapid Bucharest.
Blackburn leads Group E after it beat FC Basel 3-0 with goals from Tugay Kerimoglu, Benni McCarthy and an 90th-minute penalty from Francis Jeffers for its second win.
Nancy, playing its opener, beat 10-man Wisla Krakow 2-1 off two goals from Pascal Berengner. Wisla's Nobert Vargar was sent off for two yellow cards in the 68th minute.
The next round is Nov. 23.
© The Canadian Press, 2007