Mighty Arsenal Impress, Man United Win On Opening Europa League Night
20th September 2019
On a night which featured five British clubs in action, Unai Emery's much-changed side enjoyed the best result of all with youngsters Joe Willock and Bukayo Saka scoring in Germany
- Last season's runners-up Arsenal romped to an impressive 3-0 victory at Eintracht Frankfurt in their Europa League opener on Thursday as Mason Greenwood spared Manchester United's blushes
- In between, Dominik Kohr was sent off for last season's beaten semi-finalists Frankfurt, and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang made sure of the win for Arsenal in the Group F clash
- Wolverhampton Wanderers were unable to make it three wins out of three for Premier League clubs as they slumped to a 1-0 home defeat against Braga at Molineux
PARIS, France- Last
season's runners-up Arsenal romped to an impressive 3-0 victory at Eintracht
Frankfurt in their Europa League opener on Thursday as Mason Greenwood spared
Manchester United's blushes and Rangers got the better of Feyenoord.
On a night which featured five British clubs in action, Unai
Emery's much-changed side enjoyed the best result of all with youngsters Joe
Willock and Bukayo Saka scoring in Germany.
In between, Dominik Kohr was sent off for last season's
beaten semi-finalists Frankfurt, and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang made sure of the
win for Arsenal in the Group F clash.
"Everybody can be happy and continuing in this
competition is important, so it was good to get a good win, especially away
from home," said Emery.
Their next game will be at home to Standard Liege, who beat
Vitoria Guimaraes 2-0 on Thursday.
At Old Trafford, United had teenager Greenwood to thank as
the 17-year-old's goal gave them a 1-0 win over Astana of Kazakhstan in Group
L.
Greenwood became the youngest goalscorer for United in
European competition with a composed finish 17 minutes from time.
Victory justified Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's decision to make
nine changes from Saturday's Premier League win over Leicester City with a host
of youngsters given their chance to impress.
"You could see some of our lads needed games but it's
pleasing we got the three points," Solskjaer said.
The group's other game saw AZ Alkmaar come from behind to
draw 2-2 with Partizan Belgrade in Serbia despite playing more than an hour
with 10 men.
Wolverhampton Wanderers were unable to make it three wins
out of three for Premier League clubs as they slumped to a 1-0 home defeat
against Braga at Molineux.
Ricardo Horta's second-half goal gave the Portuguese club
all three points in Group K and it was a disappointing night for a Wolves team
who are still without a win in the Premier League this season.
In the same group Slovan Bratislava were 4-2 winners at home
to Besiktas, who welcome Wolves to Istanbul in a fortnight.
- Celtic battle to draw -
Meanwhile, Steven Gerrard's Rangers started in fine fashion
as they edged out Feyenoord 1-0 at Ibrox in Group G with Sheyi Ojo scoring the
only goal of the game midway through the first half.
James Tavernier missed a penalty before that for the Glasgow
side on an emotional night as a minute's silence was held in memory of Fernando
Ricksen. The former Rangers and Netherlands defender died aged 43 on Wednesday
after a long battle with motor neurone disease.
It is an ideal start for Rangers in a tough group and their
next match will be away in Switzerland against Young Boys, who lost 2-1 at
Porto on Thursday with Tiquinho netting twice for the hosts.
Celtic battled to a 1-1 draw with Rennes in France in a
fiery Group E encounter, with Ryan Christie's second-half penalty cancelling
out M'Baye Niang's 38th-minute spot-kick for the hosts before the visitors had
Vakoun Issouf Bayo sent off at the death.
"I asked for a reaction from the players at half-time
and we certainly got that and we thoroughly merited the point if not the three
points," said Celtic manager Neil Lennon of his team's fightback.
- Gladbach stunned -
They now host CFR Cluj, the same side who eliminated them in
Champions League qualifying. The Romanians shocked Lazio 2-1 on Thursday.
Elsewhere, Sevilla, who won the Europa League three years
running from 2014 to 2016, beat Qarabag 3-0 in Azerbaijan in Group A with
Javier Hernandez getting their opening goal.
PSV Eindhoven opened up Group D with a 3-2 victory against
Sporting Lisbon while Roma crushed Istanbul Basaksehir 4-0 in Group J.
In the same group Borussia Moenchengladbach were stunned by
Wolfsberg, losing 4-0 at home to the unheralded Austrian side who were making
their group-stage debut.
It was a heaviest ever home defeat in Europe for Gladbach,
the two-time former UEFA Cup winners.
The biggest winners on the night were Basel, as the Swiss
side hammered FC Krasnodar 5-0.