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.
STILL IN THE HUNT: Rasmus Hojlund took his goal tally for SSC Napoli to nine as the champions cruised to a win at US Cremonese and stayed two points behind the leaders Inter on Sunday stayed at the Serie A summit after beating Atalanta BC 1-0 to maintain their slender lead over local rivals AC Milan. Lautaro Martinez netted the only goal of the game in Bergamo for Inter, who lead Milan, 3-0 winners against Hellas Verona thanks to Christoper Nkunku’s first Serie A goals, by a single point at the top of the division. The Argentina striker has scored in four consecutive league matches to end what has been a tricky year in positive style. “I ended last season in a lot of pain... I kept going during the Club World Cup and international
Algeria on Sunday became the third country after Egypt and Nigeria to qualify for the knockout stage of the Africa Cup of Nations by edging Burkina Faso 1-0 in Rabat through a Riyad Mahrez penalty. Defending champions Ivory Coast failed to join the trio after drawing 1-1 with Cameroon in a lively showdown in Marrakesh. Elsewhere, Mozambique ended a 39-match wait for a first victory by beating Gabon 3-2, while Sudan got back into contention for a last-16 slot by beating Equatorial Guinea 1-0 in Casablanca. Captain Mahrez converted from the penalty spot midway through the first half and Algeria then held on
Stan Wawrinka’s 40-year-old legs did not let him down over three-plus hours in his first singles match of a farewell tour yesterday. Three-time Grand Slam singles champion Wawrinka beat Arthur Rinderknech of France, who is ranked 29th to Wawrinka’s 157th, 5-7, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5). The match went 3 hours, 16 minutes. Wawrinka last month announced that this year would be his last on the ATP tour. “Today was a tough battle ... it’s amazing to come here for the first time, to have so much support,” Wawrinka said yesterday. “Twenty years on tour, you kind of always play in the same place
BOUNCING BACK: Antetokounmpo had just returned from an eight-game injury absence last month, leading the Milwaukee Bucks to their third win in four games Giannis Antetokounmpo threw down the game-winning dunk with 4.7 seconds remaining to lift the Milwaukee Bucks to a 122-121 victory over the Charlotte Hornets and grab a slice of NBA history on Friday. The Bucks trailed by as many as 16 on their home floor, but Antetokounmpo scored 12 of his 30 points in the final quarter to help seal the win in a frantic finish that saw five lead changes in the final 45.7 seconds. The two-time NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) added 10 rebounds and five assists. It was his 158th regular-season game with at least 30 points, 10 rebounds and
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