The tournament's quarterfinal stage kicked off with four first-leg matches.

Visiting Schalke scored the three goals in nearly 30 minutes of each other for the first-leg win. Levski will have another shot at the German club April 6 in Germany.

Schalke striker Soren Larsen started the match with a yellow card in just the first minute for a challenge. The striker quickly answered with a missed shot on goal in the sixth minute.

Levski would be the first to get on board as Daniel Borimirov stole the ball from Schalke's Hamit Altintop and knocked a shot past goalkeeper Frank Rost from inside the penalty area.

Following the goal, Schalke managed a couple of chances before Levski's Cedric Bardon was dismissed for his second caution of the match. Earlier in the 20th minute, Bardon was cautioned for a foul on Gerald Asamoah. The first caution was enough to rule Bardon out of the second-leg match. Bardon's second card came 15 minutes later, leaving the home side down a man with the majority of time remaining.

Marcelo Bordon's shot on goal was saved in the 43rd minute to send the visiting club into halftime trailing by a goal.

In the second half, Schalke came out with a determined squad, scoring the equalizer in the 48th minute. After a nice series of passing, Schalke substitute Gustavo Varela drilled the game-tying goal into the back of the net on just his first touch since the break.

Schalke's second goal came in the 69th minute, when midfielder Lincoln sent a shot into the top corner of the Levski net to take the lead.

Asamoah put the finishing touches on the match by scoring the team's third goal to seal the victory in the 79th minute with a 3-1 score.

The striker scored the goal off a deflected header from Christian Poulsen.

Levski battled, but fell short of any scoring opportunity for the loss. The team faces a tough challenge for the second-leg match with a two goal deficit to overcome in the aggregate.

Overall, Schalke dominated much of the 90 minutes, outnumbering Levski in shots and ball possession. The visitors managed 14 shots compared to Levski's six.

Three other matches took place Wednesday in the UEFA Cup quarterfinal schedule.

Rapid Bucuresti met Steaua in a first-leg match and finished with a 1-1 draw. Steaua scored early in the fifth minute, but conceded the lead in the 50th minute for the draw.

In other tournament action, Basel scored twice against Middlesbrough to take a 2-0 win into the second-leg, and Sevilla pounded Russian club Zenit, 4-1.

The UEFA Cup second-leg resumes April 6.