Thursday, August 10 2006 11:23 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Paris: Liverpool and AC Milan scrape narrow wins to stay on course for the group stage of the Champions League on Wednesday (10 Aug, 2006) on a night of heartache for the minnows. English giants Liverpool needed an 88th minute winner from new signing Mark Gonzalez to hand them a 2-1 victory over Maccabi Haifa, whose home city is at the centre of the bloody Middle East conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

Milan meanwhile, who were only grudgingly granted a place in the competition last week by UEFA after initially being kicked out because of Italy's corruption scandal, are narrow 1-0 winners over Red Star Belgrade.

Veteran striker Filippo Inzaghi, with a goal on his birthday, is the hero for the 2003 champions at the San Siro, giving Carlo Ancelotti's side a slender advantage heading into the second leg.

Dutch giants Ajax also edged nearer to the next round with a hard-fought 2-1 victory away to Denmark's FC Copenhagen.

Eastern European teams also fares well, with Levksi Sofia poises to become the first Bulgarian side ever to reach the group stages after their 2-0 win at home to Italian minnows Chievo.

Sofia can well be joined in the next round by two Russian clubs, CSKA Moscow, 3-0 winners at home to Ruzomberok of Slovakia, and Spartak Moscow, who will now be favourites to progress against Slovan Liberec after a 0-0 draw away to the Czech club.

But there is disappointment for Scottish hopefuls Hearts, who concede two goals in the final five minutes to go down 2-1 at home to experienced Greek side AEK Athens.

Hearts, aiming to become the first side from Scotland other than Rangers or Celtic to reach the group stages, have taken the lead through Saulius Mikoliunas' second-half goal at Murrayfield.

But a Pantelis Kapetanos equaliser in the final minute is followed by a deflected shot from Nikolaos Liberopoulos deep into injury time to the bitter disappointment of the home side. Hearts defeat is typical of a disappointing night for some of the less fashionable clubs dreaming of Champions League glory.

Nowhere is this more evident than at Anfield, where Haifa has the measure of Liverpool for long periods only to suffer a shattering late defeat.

Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez cannot hide his relief after Gonzalez' goal two minutes from time handed his a narrow victory after the Reds have equalised through Craig Bellamy following a Gustavo Boccoli strike for Haifa.

"We had to use the pace of Gonzales," Benitez says afterwards, explaining his decision to throw on the winger, who has waited 12 months for his Liverpool debut thanks to work permit and injury woes.

"It was a good situation for us, to see him score a goal in his first five minutes," Benitez says.

He praises the efforts of Liverpool's opponents.

"We knew that it would be a difficult game. You could see that they had good quality, and could counter attack," Benitez says.

"We were controlling, but we were not creating the chances. The second half was better," Benitez says.

Haifa manager Roni Levy, meanwhile, is left ruing the late goal.

"It is a real disappointment, it is a big difference between 1-1 and 2-1. But still, maybe we have a chance of a dream in the second game," he says.

But Hearts boss Valdas Ivanauskas is unable to take defeat to AEK Athens on the chin, raging at Danish official Nicolai Vollquartz's decision to red card Bruno Aguiar at a time when the Scots led 1-0 and were pressing for a second goal.

Ivanauskas believes Vollquartz's sending off of Aguiar, after he had thrown the ball away to earn a second caution, could have ended Hearts' Euro dream.

"There was nothing unusual in what Bruno did. He didn't kick anyone and I don't know why the referee sent him off," Ivanauskas fumes.

"We were winning 1-0 and we had the chance to go on and win the game but this sending off cost us the match. It was not an easy game, though it was not anything different to what I was expecting in a Champions League game and it was high tempo," Ivanauskas says.

"But after this sending off it became even harder for us and we are all angry about what happened. Bruno was angry and said it was nothing and the players are all angry as they put so much effort into the game," he adds.

The second leg matches take place on August 22/23.