News Archive

Europa League - day 3

A great week for Spanish sides on in the third round of group games, all three ending the day at the top of their respective groups after impressive wins. Betis started things off with a 1-2 victory at AC Milan, a result which took them above the Italian side in the table. Sanabria put the visitors ahead from a Lo Celso cross, and had a second strike ruled out for a questionable offside decision before the break. Lo Celso himself made it two with a long shot after the restart, band although Cutrone got one back late on, any hope of a comeback by the locals ended when Samu Castillejo was sent off for a hard tackle on Lo Celso. Later in the evening Betis’s city neighbours Sevilla thrashed Akhisar 6-0 to return to the top of their group, now in a three way tie with Krasnodar and Standard Liège. A Roque strike and a Sarabia penalty put the Andalusians two up in only ten minutes, and before the interval Lukac fumbled the ball into his own net from a Quincy Promes over head kick. And after the restart Muriel, Promes and Mercado added three more for the biggest European win in the club’s history. Villarreal also clocked up a big score, a 5-0 victory over Rapid Vienna giving them their first home win of the season. Ekambi set up Fornals for the opener and then added the second himself, and with half time approaching a header from the striker was deflected into the net by Barac. Some twenty minutes into the second half Raba made it four after Ekambi played back Jaume Costa’s centre, and although Costa was sent off soon afterwards after picking up a second yellow card for diving, Gerard Moreno completed the scoring with five minutes to go. (25.10.18)