Hamburg, Aug 19 (DPA) Arsenal, Stuttgart and Olympiakos Piraeus Tuesday took a giant step towards the lucrative group stage of the Champions League with away wins in their first leg matches in the play-off round.

Premier League side Arsenal won the Battle of Britain against Scottish club Celtic 2-0, while Stuttgart beat Romanian club Timisoara 2-0.

Olympiakos managed in 2-0 victory in Tiraspol against Moldovan club Sheriff.

In other games on Tuesday FC Copenhagen beat a ten-man APOEL Nicosia from Cyprus 1-0, while Sporting Lisbon were held to a 2-2 draw in the Portuguese capital by Serie A club Fiorentina.

Sporting finished the game with ten man after having Simon Vukcevic sent off on the hour.

The return legs will be played next Wednesday August 26, with the winners of the ties advancing directly to the group stages of the Champions League.