London: Udinese compounded Atletico Madrid's miserable start to the season with a 2-0 victory, Tottenham squeezed past Rubin Kazan 1-0 and Anderlecht, PSV Eindhoven and Sporting Lisbon all made it three wins out of three in the Europa League on Thursday.
Europe is proving to be no respite for Atletico, which has won just two in seven Spanish league games and is now three points behind leader Udinese in Group I after conceding goals from Mehdi Benatia and Antonio Floro.
But the 2010 Europa League winners are two points ahead of Rennes and Celtic, who drew 1-1 in France.
Tottenham's season is back on track after a lackluster start, with Roman Pavlyuchenko's fierce free kick against Rubin securing a second straight Group A win to go two points clear of PAOK Salonika.
The Greek side dislodged Rubin from second place with a 2-1 victory over newcomer Shamrock Rovers.
Sporting Lisbon maintained their 100 per cent record, opening up a seven-point lead over all three Group D rivals by beating 10-man Vaslui 2-0. Santos Evaldo and Matias Fernandez scored after Lopes Wesley's red card. Lazio was held 1-1 by FC Zurich after Giuseppe Sculli's goal was quickly canceled out by Nikci Adrian.
PSV Eindhoven strengthened their grip on first place in Group C after Georgino Wijnaldum's penalty kick earned a 1-0 win at Hapoel Tel-Aviv.
Legia Warsaw went second after Miroslav Radovic headed the Romanian side to a 1-0 win over Rapid Bucharest.
Goals from Guillaume Gillet and Matias Suarez kept unbeaten Anderlecht top of Group L with a 2-0 win over Sturm Graz, which had defender Thomas Burgstaller sent off. Dmitri Sychev's double lifted Lokomotiv Moscow to a 3-1 victory over pointless AEK Athens and into second place.
Group F is still topped by unbeaten Athletic Bilbao after Fernando Llorente's pair of second-half penalties salvaged a 2-2 draw against Salzburg.
Paris St. Germain was reduced to nine men on a frustrating night at Slovan Bratislava that ended in a 0-0 draw, leaving the French side third.
Premier League side Stoke is the surprise leader in Group E after headers from Kenwyne Jones and Cameron Jerome and Ryan Shotton's strike secured a 3-0 win over Maccabi Tel Aviv that saw two red cards.
Jerome collected a second yellow card in the 43rd minute after elbowing Yoav Ziv, who was shown red in a bizarre incident early in the second half.
Frustrated that no free kick had been awarded when he was tackled by Shotton, Ziv kicked out and managed to fire his boot, which had come loose in the challenge, flying into the assistant referee.
Dynamo Kiev went second, two points behind Stoke, after Denys Garmash's stoppage time goal clinched a 1-0 victory over Besiktas.
Stoke's surprising run in Europe is being matched by Birmingham, which was relegated from the Premier League last season after winning the League Cup.
Chris Wood scored in the 10th minute of stoppage time to secure a 2-1 win at Club Brugge, joining the Belgian side on six points at the top of Group H, which also saw third-place Braga was held to a 1-1 draw by Maribor.
Fulham was the only English side to lose in Europe this week, going down 1-0 at Wisla Krakow as Moussa Dembele saw red. But Fulham is only a point behind Group K leader FC Twente, which thrashed Odense BK 4-1 in Denmark.
In Group J there were 5-0 routs for leader Schalke over bottom-place AEK Larnaca and second-place Maccabi Haifa over Steaua Bucharest, which had two players sent off.
In Group G, Metalist Kharkiv overcame the first-half dismissal of Jonathan Cristaldo to beat Malmo 4-1 and go two points clear of AZ Alkmaar, which drew 2-2 with Austria Vienna.
Vorskla Poltava secured their first point in Group B by holding leader Standard Liege to a 0-0 draw.
Hannover did not take advantage of Liege's slip-up, joining them on five points by being held to a 2-2 draw by FC Copenhagen, which scored a last-minute leveler.
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