Europa League Round up
Mario Balotelli performed brilliantly last night in his debut match for Manchester City as he came from the bench to save his team by scoring the winning goal against FC Timisoara in Romania.
City’s 1-0 win made sure that Mancini’s side will have a slender advantage in the second leg.
Balotelli came off the bench just after the hour mark and scored in the 72nd minute of the game.
Liverpool on the other hand also survived a scare as they barely edged passed Turkish Cup Champions Trabzonspor by one goal to nil at Anfield.
Ryan Babel scored the only goal of the match at the end of first half and the teams remained at deadlock for quite some time. Liverpool however should have increased the lead but Joe Cole had his second half penalty saved.
As a result, no English side scored more than a goal in yesterday’s encounters as Aston Villa drew 1-1 with Rapid Vienna in the first leg as well.
Kevin MacDonald was brave enough to field a young side which repaid the faith. Aston Villa will now play the next leg at home with the advantage of having a priceless away goal.
Marc Albrighton extended his stay after putting in another impressive shift for the villains.
Albrighton was the star for Aston Villa in their game against West Ham on the weekend. He followed that up by performing brilliantly in the midfield last night to set up a goal for Barry Bannan early in the first half.
Atdhe Nuhiu equalised for Vienna in the second half and the home side should have won the match last night but their profligacy in front of goal cost them dearly.
Meanwhile, over in Glasgow, goals from Efrain Juarez and Georgios Samaras helped Celtic overcome Dutch outfit Utrecht.
Juarez had scored the only goal against Braga two weeks ago and enjoyed another impressive European night as he bagged the opener early in the first half. Meanwhile Samaras added another in the second half to put the team in the drivers’ seat ahead of the next leg in Holland.
In another match, Tom Hateley scored from a stunning free kick in injury time to give Motherwell a deserved own goal ahead of their second leg as they lost 2-1 to Odense.
Odense looked to be cruising when Peter Utaka added to Chris Sorensen’s first half strike but Motherwell didn’t give up and were rewarded for their resilience when Hateley curled a sublime 25 yard kick into the goal.
Dundee United also face a daunting task of making it to the next round of the Europa League after they were beaten 1-0 by AEK Athens in Tannadice Park.
Rafik Djebbour scored the solitary goal of the match with only 10 minutes on the clock.
Meanwhile Welsh Champions New Saints had their hopes of making it to the next round burnt to ashes as CSKA Sofia beat them by 3 goals to nil.
Other results for the night were as follows:
Slovan Bratislava 0-1 VfB Stuttgart, Sporting 0-2 Brondby, AIK Solna 0-0 Levski Sofia, AZ Alkmaar 2-0 FC Aktobe, BATE Borisov 3-0 Maritimo, Bayer Leverkusen 3-0 Tavriya Symferopol, Borussia Dortmund 4-0 FK Qarabag, , CSKA Moscow 4-0 Anorthosis Famagusta, CSKA Sofia 3-0 The New Saints, Debrecen 2-0 Litex Lovech, Dnipro 0-1 Lech Poznan, Gyor ETO FC 0-2 Dinamo Zagreb, Hajduk Split 4-1 Unirea Urziceni , Dundee Utd 0-1 AEK Athens, FC Timisoara 0-1 Man City, FC Vaslui 0-0 Lille, Feyenoord 1-0 AA Gent, Steaua Bucharest 1-0 Grasshoppers, Villarreal 5-0 Dnepr Mogilev , Galatasaray 2-2 Karpaty Lviv, Genk 0-3 FC Porto, Getafe 1-0 Apoel Nicosia, Celtic 2-0 FC Utrecht, Club Bruges 2-1 Dinamo Minsk , , Lausanne Sports 1-1 Lokomotiv Moscow, Liverpool 1-0 Trabzonspor , Napoli 1-0 Elfsborg, Odense BK 2-1 Motherwell, Omonia Nicosia 0-1 FC Metalist Kharkiv , Palermo 3-0 NK Maribor, PAOK Salonika 1-0 Fenerbahce, Paris SG 2-0 Macc Tel-Aviv, Rapid Vienna 1-1 Aston Villa, Sibir Novosibirsk 1-0 PSV Eindhoven, SK Sturm Graz 1-2 Juventus.
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