The Champions League’s little brother continued once more this evening with the final round of play-off matches taking shape as the team’s involved battled it out in the first leg of their respective ties.
Tonight’s action saw three British sides compete in a bid to make it to the group stages of the Europa League, with Sean Dyche’s Burnley, Brendan Rodger’s Celtic and Steven Gerrard’s Rangers all doing their best to impress on the European stage.
After drawing 1-1, Burnley ended up losing 3-1 away to Olympiakos after playing the final 30 minutes with 10 men, cementing their first loss in Europe this season.
Celtic dominated possession against FK Sūduva but they also could only come away from their match with a 1-1 draw. Rangers were the only British side playing at home this evening as they beat FC Ufa 1-0 at the Ibrox.
Here are the winners and losers from tonights Europa League play-off first leg matches.
Winners
Rangers
Former England international Steven Gerrard has had a pretty decent start in Scotland since he took over as manager before the start of the season.
In fact, Rangers went into this match unbeaten in nine matches in all competitions, winning five and drawing four.
This evening’s match saw them take on Russian outfit FC Ufa and the Scots had to wait until just before half-time to go ahead thanks to Connor Goldson. A corner taken by Ryan Kent found Alfredo Morelos who guided a downward header towards goal, with Goldson reacting first after a poor piece of goalkeeping from FC Ufa’s Aleksandr Belenov.
The result means Gerrard is yet to be beaten in the famous blue colours of Rangers and that the club – despite having to make a difficult trip to Russia following an away trip against Motherwell in the league – have a decent chance of progressing to the group stages after becoming the only British team to win this evening.
Losers
Celtic
“We gave away a soft goal,” Rodgers told reporters (via BBC Sport) after his side’s 1-1 draw this evening. “That is a real concern. We are not giving away many chances, but we don’t defend the set-piece well enough.”
Celtic’s performance lacked any real bite and they once again let in a soft goal when FK Sūduva’s Vaidas Slavickas curled in a free-kick which left the Scottish champions standing still before Ovidijus Verbickas was able to nod in a simple goal to equalise.
Rodgers will be frustrated by his side’s lack of concentration and will continue his efforts to improve the squad until the transfer window closes at the end of the month.
The positives are that youngsters Michael Johnston & Olivier Ntcham seem to be getting better and better, with Johnston making his first appearance in the Europa League this evening taking just two minutes to make his mark on the European stage.
The Scotland U21 international ran past the Suduva marker out on the left-wing and provided an accurate inswinging cross which made its way to Ntcham – eight yards from goal – with the French midfielder powering a header past goalkeeper Ivan Kardum for his third goal of the season.
Winners
Artem Dzyuba
The big man who made a big impact on this year’s Fifa World Cup in Russia continued his run of form with a vital goal in Zenit St Petersburg’s victory against a stubborn Molde FK.
After the heroics from the Russian side in the previous round where they overcame a 4-0 first leg loss to sensationally win 8-5 on aggregate, this evening saw a more lacklustre performance with the home side going 1-0 down thanks to a goal from Molde’s Eirik Hestad.
However, Dzyuba’s strike in the 71st minute helped the 2008 Europa League winners back on their feet and they eventually won the game 3-1 thanks to an 80th-minute goal from Anton Zabolotny and a 90th-minute finish from Miha Mevlja.
Dzyuba now has four goals in the last two games in Europa League football and has six goals in six games in all competitions in the 18/19 season.
Losers
Tom Heaton
Sean Dyche opted to make six changes for this evening’s match against Olympiakos. The Clarets boss opted to field Burnley old-boy Tom Heaton over new signing and former England number one Joe Hart, who played in Burnley’s previous four fixtures including both legs over the last round in this very competition.
The former Manchester United goalkeeper didn’t have the greatest of starts after Olympiakos attacking midfielder Kostas Fortounis curled in an excellent free-kick to put the Greek side 1-0 to the good, with Heaton clearly angered by his wall’s position.
This lack of communication got Burnley off to a bad start and after getting back on level terms, Burnley once again conceded from a set-piece this time through a goal from Andreas Bouchalakis, putting the Greeks back in front. A third set-piece – this time from a penalty after a Ben Gibson handball, which resulted in the former Middlesbrough player being sent off – was converted to put the home side 3-1 up.
In his two appearances in the Europa League, Hart is yet to let a ball get the better of him and thusly has two clean sheets to his name. Heaton, having let three goals in this evening and with Burnley’s unbeaten run in the Europa League over, may find that his place in the starting eleven for Dyche’s side nowhere near assured now that a Premier League winner is pushing him every step of the way.
Winners
Nicklas Bendtner
Everyone’s favourite former Arsenal striker popped up yet again to get himself on the scoresheet this evening for Rosenborg as they ran out 3-1 winners over Macedonian side KF Shkëndija.
The 30-year-old Danish international scored the Norwiegn sides second goal after just 15 minutes on the clock to give them a relatively comfortable lead with little time on the clock.
In 2018, Bendtner has scored 10 goals in 31 matches, averaging a goal every 0.32 matches which is hardly the prolific standard the infamous Dane believes he is at but is still a respectable conversion rate at this level.
As for Rosenborg, they will take a two-goal lead to Macedonia and will be sure-fire favourites to once again advance to the group stages.
Losers
Sevilla
The Spanish outfit are officially the most successful club in this competition, winning a record five UEFA Cups/UEFA Europa Leagues (2006, 2007, 2014, 2015 and 2016) and the 2006 UEFA Super Cup.
Surely a shoe-in for qualification, it took a mighty 81 minutes before Sevilla managed to get the ball into the back of the Sigma net thanks to Pablo Sarabia goal.
Sevilla managed just one more shot than their opposition and despite having 61% possession, they only managed to get five shots on target throughout the 90 minutes.
For Sigma, they are competing in their first Europa League qualification in nine years and they were unlucky to lose this match despite the vast difference in quality between the two sides.
The Spaniards will be big favourites to win the second leg and go on to start their latest European adventure but they will need to be more clinical and effective than they were this evening.
The post Winners and losers from tonight’s Europe League play-off first leg matches appeared first on Squawka News.
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