Europa League round-up: Liverpool held, Dortmund earn late win

After 2 consecutive losses in the Premier League, Liverpool would have been hoping for a win against Bordeaux in the Europa League to lift their spirits, but it wasn’t so as the Reds were held to a 1-1 draw by Bordeaux at Stade Chaban-Delmas is France. It looked to be going in the same direction for Borussia Dortmund on the night against Krasnodar at the Signal Iduna Park but a late goal from Joo Ho Park sealed the win for the home side.

Liverpool began the game in a shaky manner as they let Bordeaux create a few chances that the French team should have converted to make the English side pay but their wastefulness meant that Reds were still in the game. It would be through former Southampton midfielder Adam Lallana that Brendan Rodgers’ side would take the lead in the second half with a quarter of the game to be played. It would be yet another away game in Europe that the Merseyside team would let slip through their hands when substitute Jussi equalised just past the 80-minute mark to steal a point.

While the Reds lost a lead to settle for a draw, Thomas Tuchel side retained their 100% winning start to this season playing at home against Krasnodar despite having to come from a goal down to win. They went a goal down within the first 15 minutes of the game, but two stoppage time goals would win the hosts the game. The first one coming from Park’s cross to Ginter at the end of the first half and the second coming from the latter’s pass to the former in injury time at the end of the game to hand Dortmund a 2-1 win over Krasnodar.

Italian side Napoli hosted Club Brugge on the night and it ended as a totally one-sided affair with Napoli smashing 5 goals past a hapless Club Brugge defence. Braces from Dries Mertens and Jose Callejon along with a solitary goal by Marek Hamsik buried the Belgian side in Italy. The visitors could find no answer as the hosts were dominant right from the beginning, scoring as early as the 5th minute and never letting up after the first goal. IN fact, Callejon could have had a hattrick but missed from close range in the final minutes.

Dutch side Ajax held Scottish biggies Celtic to a 2-2 draw after going behind twice in a see-saw game. The home side conceded the initiative early in the game, letting the visitors score within the first 10 minutes but having found a way back with a goal, they let another one in and had to score late to restore parity and walk away with a point.

Heung Min Son scored a brace in 3 minutes to swing the tie in Tottenham’s favour

Tottenham won their game at White Hart Lane 3-1 against Qarabag despite going down by a goal early after new recruit Keiran Trippier brought down a Qarabag player in the box and the Azerbaijan side were off to a great start only for Heung Min Son to put things back in the Spurs’ favour by scoring 2 goals in 3 minutes. And while substitute Harry Kane still hasn’t scored this season, he played Erik Lamela through for Spurs’ third.

Two other teams won by the same scoreline, Athletic Bilbao beating Augsburg in Spain and Lokomotiv Moscow who earned an away win against Sporting CP. Schalke also won their away game 3-0 against APOEL but Lazio and AS Monaco had to settle for 1-1 draws away from home against FK Dnipro and Anderlecht respectively.

Here’s how all the other results panned out:

Liberec 1-0 Braga

Fenerbahce 1-3 Molde

Rapid Wein 2-1 Villareal

Sion 2-1 Rubin Kazan

Qabala 0-0 PAOK

Groningen 0-3 Marseille

Viktoria Plzen 2-0 Dinamo Minsk

Midtjylland 1-0 Legia Warsaw

Asteras Tripolis 1-1 Sparta Prague

Lech Poznan 1-1 Belenenses

FC Basel 2-1 Fiorentina

Partizan 3-2 AZ Alkmaar

ASSE 2-2 Rosenborg

Skenderbeu 0-1 Besiktas