Chelsea made to pay, wins for Leeds and Rangers

Chelsea were made to pay for the absence of six key players as they slumped to a 2-0 defeat at Hapoel Tel Aviv on a night of mixed fortunes for British clubs in the first leg of the UEFA Cup second round on Thursday.

The Londoners clearly missed French World Cup stars Marcel Desailly and Emmanuel Petit and four other regulars -- missing because of a concern about safety and, in Desailly's case, injury.

They struggled to impose themselves on the Israelis and then collapsed in the last few minutes of the game.

After a poor first half they were reduced to 10 men in the 53rd minute when Mario Melchiot was sent off for kicking Shimon Gershon in the backside.

The visitors managed to withstand the home side's pressure until the 88th minute when John Terry handled in the area and Gershon smashed the spotkick into the roof of the net.

Moments later Sergei Cleschenko sealed a memorable win when he rose unmarked to head in off the far post.

Leeds United beat Troyes 4-2 at Elland Road but a late goal gave the unfancied French club a flicker of hope for the second leg.

Mark Viduka and Lee Bowyer both scored twice to put English league leaders in total control of the tie at 4-1 after 46 minutes.

But Troyes, who were reduced to 10 men in the 49th when Medhi Meniri was sent off for elbowing Viduka, fought back with Patrice Loko grabbing his second of the night in the 81st minute.

Rangers were also left kicking themselves after a last minute goal by Dynamo Moscow took the gloss off an otherwise impressive 3-1 win over Dynamo Moscow at Ibrox.

Dick Advocaat's side took just eight minutes to open the scoring when Italian defender Lorenzo Amoruso squeezed the ball over the line from a tight angle.

Defender Michael Ball stretched the lead with a deflected free kick before Dutch veteran Ronald de Boer made it 3-0 with a diving header with 10 minutes to go.

But in the dying seconds Rolan Gusev gave the Russians some hope for the second leg when he fired in a right foot shot to silence the 45,000 home crowd.

Helsingborg took the advantage in their tie with Ipswich after holding the English premier league side to a goalless draw at Portman Road.

England manager Sven Goran Eriksson and UEFA President Lennart Johansson were in the crowd to see their Swedish compatriots dominate their English hosts for much of the match.

Helsingborg produced the best attacking football and it was only the excellent reactions of Ipswich keeper Matteo Sereni that kept out fine efforts by Rade Prica and the Brazilian Alvarro.