Aston Villa have work to do in the Europa League after losing their playoff first leg on Thursday away to Austria’s Rapid Vienna 1-0.
The Austrians caught Villa cold as Nikica Jelavic netted the only goal in the opening minute to floor the English Premier League side, who began their league campaign last week with a surprising home loss to Wigan Athletic.
Villa coach Martin O’Neill shrugged off the defeat.
PHOTO: REUTERS
“We knew this was going to be exceptionally difficult — so will the return tie — but we are going to try to win,” said O’Neill, a European Cup winner with Nottingham Forest.
“Of course we can overturn it. It was never going to be an easy match, but this time next week we will be fitter again,” he said.
Another top flight English side, Everton, had a much easier time of it as they swamped Czech club Sigma Olomouc 4-0 in their first game of the Europa League, a revamped version of the UEFA Cup.
Louis Saha and Jack Rodwell both scored twice, either side of halftime to bolster Everton’s morale after an opening Premier League mauling by Arsenal 6-1 at Goodison Park.
“Jack has great potential and we hope he will go on to fulfill it. We will bring him along in the right way,” Everton boss David Moyes said.
“He has a bit to go yet. We will use him in the games we see fit. Tonight, he showed he is a very good player,” he said.
Fulham won 3-1 at home to Russian unknown quantities Amkar Perm with Andy Johnson, Clint Dempsey and Bobby Zamora all on target.
There was heartbreak for Scotland’s Hearts, however, after a 4-0 thrashing at Dinamo Zagreb.
Slovakian side Kosice, meanwhile, gave glitzy Italian rivals AS Roma a fright as they shared six goals with the hosts’ Jan Novak baging a brace, to add to a four-goal haul last week in a league loss to Spartak Trnava. Francesco Totti also hit a double for Roma.
One side almost guaranteed the win over two legs, and a place in the group stages, are Germany’s in-form Hamburg, who swamped Guingamp 5-1 in France, with Croatian playmaker Mladen Petric scoring a hat-trick. Jose Paolo Guerrero and Marcus Berg were the Germans’ other scorers.
There looks to be no fairytale for Irish side St Patricks Athletic, on the evidence of their 3-0 loss away to Romania’s former European champions Steaua Bucharest. The Irish were undone after the break by goals from Banel Nicolita and then a brace from Bogdan Stancu.
Spain’s former Champions League semi-finalists Villarreal and Switzerland’s Basel both scored 3-1 away successes at the Netherland’s NAC Breda and Azeri outfit Baku respectively — Marco Streller took the plaudits for Basel with at two-goal show.
Two Israeli sides enjoyed contrasting fortunes as Hapoel Tel Aviv won 2-1 with a last-gasp winner at Czech opponents Teplice, but city rivals Bnei Yehuda Tel-Aviv went down to an Ibrahim Afellay goal as PSV Eindhoven clinched a 1-0 away-leg success.
Elsewhere, Dutch side Heerenveen would appear to be in the driving seat after a 1-1 draw away to PAOK Salonika of Greece. Litex Lovetch of Bulgaria won by the only goal at Belarus rivals BATA Borisov and the Austria versus Ukraine matches between Sturm Graz and Metalist Kharkov and Metalurgs Donetsk and Austria Vienna both ended in scoring draws.
CSKA Sofia of Bulgaria and Dinamo Moscow ended a goalless stalemate in the Bulgarian capital.
The New Taipei Kings claimed the inaugural Taiwan Professional Basketball League (TPBL) championship on Sunday, defeating the Kaohsiung FamilyMart Aquas 108-89 in the final. Playing at home, the Kings pulled ahead with Jeremy Lin’s (林書豪) clutch three-pointers, securing their victory over the Aquas in the TPBL final. The Kings came out strong in the first quarter, dominating to build a 35-18 lead. By halftime, they had stretched their advantage to 61-38. In the third quarter, the Aquas narrowed the deficit to 12 points, but Lin stepped up, sinking several tough three- pointers to extend the lead. In the final quarter, the Kings pushed the
In an unlikely Ethiopian outpost of one the most French of pastimes, four men are leaning over their petanque balls, arguing over who is winning. Petanque, the bowling game also known as boules, is more readily associated with French village squares where locals launch metal balls at a jack while enjoying an afternoon drink, but for decades, it has also been a beloved pastime for members of a club near the iconic Meskel Square in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. It was founded in the early 20th century to cater to French railway workers, who built a line connecting Addis Ababa
Taiwanese women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei and Australian teenager Maya Joint on Tuesday eased into the Eastbourne Open quarter-finals in England as Hsieh prepares for the Wimbledon Championships next week. Four-time Wimbledon women’s doubles champion Hsieh and 19-year-old Joint fired two aces and converted five of eight break points to defeat Japan’s Shuko Aoyama and Poland’s Katarzyna Piter 6-3, 6-3 in 58 minutes on the grass court. Hsieh and Joint are today to face fourth seeds Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic and Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko, who advanced on Monday with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Quinn Gleason of the US and
BEAT THE HEAT: A brutal heat wave in the US has made cooling breaks standard. Dortmund’s coach said the weather could shape the destiny of the tournament Chelsea on Tuesday beat Esperance of Tunisia 3-0 to set up a FIFA Club World Cup last-16 tie against SL Benfica, who earlier defeated Bayern Munich 1-0, as furnace-link heat and the threat of thunder and lightning wreak havoc at the tournament. Elsewhere, minnows Auckland City claimed a memorable draw against Boca Juniors, while Los Angeles bowed out of the tournament with a stalemate against Flamengo. In Charlotte, Andreas Schjelderup scored the only goal for Benfica in their Group C clash with Bayern in front of 33,287 fans, finishing first-time from a cutback by his fellow Norwegian Fredrik Aursnes in the 13th
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