Atletico Madrid beats Celtic 2-0 in Europa League

GENEVA (AP) — Europa League specialist Radamel Falcao scored again as 2010 winner Atletico Madrid beat Celtic 2-0 in a group-stage opener on Thursday.

Falcao got 18 goals in last season's competition to help FC Porto succeed Atletico as champion, and persuade the Madrid club to pay €40 million ($57 million) for his offseason transfer.

The Colombia international took just three minutes to strike with a header from a corner, and Brazilian midfielder Diego shot right-footed into the net in the 69th minute.

UEFA will be asked to annul the result by FC Sion, which was expelled from the competition for fielding ineligible players in its playoff round victory over Celtic. UEFA confirmed the Scottish club's place in the lineup on Tuesday.

Completing what is probably the toughest group, Udinese's talismanic forward Antonio di Natale scored in a 2-1 victory over Rennes.

Big-spending Paris Saint-Germain is widely tipped to contend for the trophy, and won 3-1 at home to Salzburg.

PSG led at half time through Brazilian midfielder Nene, from the penalty spot, and Mathieu Bodmer. France midfielder Jeremy Menez, an €8 million ($11.5 million) offseason signing from AS Roma by the club's new Qatari owners, made it 3-0 before Salzburg got a late consolation goal.

Braga, beaten by Porto in the final last May, won 3-1 at English second-division side Birmingham, and last season's Champions League semifinalist Schalke earned a scoreless draw in Bucharest against Steaua.

Besiktas beat Maccabi Tel Aviv 5-1 in a match overshadowed by troubled Turkish-Israeli political relations. Maccabi players were booed before the match and 2,000 police officers were deployed at the stadium in Istanbul.

Shamrock Rovers, Ireland's first-ever representative in the group stage of a UEFA competition, lost 3-0 at home to Russia's Rubin Kazan after both teams had a penalty saved.

Tottenham fielded a team of reserves in Greece and got a scoreless draw against PAOK which missed a twice-taken penalty.

Stoke also took a point from a long away trip, though Dynamo Kiev leveled 1-1 in stoppage time through Ognjen Vukojevic. Stoke led through Cameron Jerome's 55th-minute finish.

Fulham, which lost the 2010 final to Atletico, was held 1-1 at home to FC Twente.

Lazio was reduced to 10 men when defender Luciano Zauri was dismissed in the 62nd minute, but still leveled for a 2-2 draw at home to Vaslui. Brazilian midfielder Wesley scored twice for the Romanian visitors.

Also on a 24-match progam Thursday, Athletic Bilbao won 2-1 at Slovan Bratislava and Sporting Lisbon got a 2-0 victory at FC Zurich. PSV Eindhoven edged Legia Warsaw 1-0 and Anderlecht's Argentinian forward Matias Suarez got a hat trick in a 4-1 win over AEK Athens.