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Liverpool held to goalless draw

BERNE (Reuters) – Zenit St Petersburg, VfB Stuttgart and Porto all won to maintain 100 percent records in the Europa League yesterday after three matches of the group stage.

Liverpool forced a goalless draw in a poor Group K match at Napoli while Paris St Germain held Borussia Dortmund 1-1 away from home in Group J after snatching a late equaliser.

Group G leaders Zenit, champions in 2008 when the tournament was in its previous guise as the UEFA Cup, enjoyed a comfortable 2-0 win at home to Croatia's Hajduk Split.

Aleksandr Bukharov headed the Russians ahead in the 25th minute and Danny added a second midway through the second half.

Anderlecht thumped AEK Athens 3-0 in the group's other match with 17-year-old striker Romelo Lukaku among the scorers with a goal set up by Mbark Boussoufa, who scored the first and also set up the third for Roland Juhasz.

VfB Stuttgart, bottom of the Bundesliga, shrugged off the poor domestic form which last week cost coach Christian Gross his job to beat Getafe 1-0 in Group H with a Ciprian Marica goal in the 29th minute.

Brazilian forward Hulk scored two second-half goals to help Porto win 3-1 at Besiktas in Group L after Colombia striker Radamel Falcao had given them a first-half lead.

Bobo, another Brazilian, pulled one back in added time for the Turks.

Liverpool rested captain Steven Gerrard and striker Fernando Torres in Italy and had a lucky escape when Paul Konchesky cleared Marek Hamsik's effort with replays unclear whether the ball had crossed the line.

Napoli's Edinson Cavani and Liverpool's Ryan Babel spurned two of the few chances after the break as the visitors, who are in the Premier League relegation zone, stayed top of Group K with five points, two clear of Napoli and Utrecht.

PSG substitute Clement Chantome fired an 87th minute goal at Borussia Dortmund to cancel out Nuri Sahin's penalty just after halftime and keep the French side top of Group J.

Mali striker Frederic Kanoute gave Sevilla a 1-0 win at Ukraine's Karpaty Lviv in the same group as they moved within a point of PSG with six from three games.