Former European champions Juventus and Liverpool won their first games in this season’s Europa League on Thursday.
While Liverpool labored on their return to the second tier of European club soccer to beat Unirea Urziceni with a late goal, Brazilian striker Amauri scored a header in each half as Juventus recovered from a goal down to beat Ajax 2-1.
Ajax started aggressively in Amsterdam and Siem de Jong headed wide before Miralem Sulejmani put the home side in the lead in the 17th.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Alessandro Del Piero started the move that led to Juventus’ 32nd-minute equalizer, passing two defenders before picking out Paolo De Ceglie, who crossed to Amauri.
Del Piero then set up Amauri again in the 58th.
“Perhaps I am exaggerating but I believe they had two crosses the whole game and they scored from those two,” Ajax coach Martin Jol said. “We deserved more than a loss.”
Juventus will be without Hasan Salihamidzic in next week’s second-leg match. The substitute was sent off in the last minute for fouling Christian Eriksen, but Ajax have a more disruptive suspension, with leading scorer Luis Suarez unavailable after a booking.
Liverpool, another of the former European champions now fighting it out in the less prestigious Europa League, were unimpressive in their 1-0 win against Unirea Urziceni — who, like Liverpool and Juventus, dropped into the tournament following elimination from the Champions League.
The English side needed an 81st-minute header by David Ngog to beat the Romanians.
Ryan Babel crossed right-footed from the left to Daniel Pacheco, and the Spanish youngster headed back across goal for Ngog to knock into the net from close range.
“They were very stubborn but we expected that,” Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard said. “Maybe we need to be a bit more clinical. Maybe we lacked 5 or 10 percent on the speed of the ball but I think we’ll get more joy against these away from home.”
Spain’s four teams failed to earn a single win between them, even with three of them playing at home.
Atletico Madrid drew 1-1 with Galatasaray, who have the edge after Abdul Keita grabbed a valuable away goal in the second half following Jose Antonio Reyes’ 23rd-minute free kick for the hosts.
Athletic Bilbao drew 1-1 with Anderlecht, a 58th-minute equalizer from Mikel San Jose coming after Lucas Biglia had opened the scoring at San Mames Stadium
Villarreal drew 2-2 with Wolfsburg, and Valencia lost 1-0 at FC Brugge.
Villarreal equalized with five minutes left against Wolfsburg through striker Marco Ruben while Valencia lost to a 56th-minute goal by striker Dorge Kouemaha, .
Fulham beat Shakhtar Donetsk, the last club to win the UEFA Cup before it was revamped as the Europa League this season, 2-1 in west London. Zoltan Gera and Bobby Zamora scored for Fulham.
Djibril Cisse scored with a minute left to give Panathinaikos a surprise 3-2 win over visiting AS Roma.
The Italian club had led twice, through Mirko Vucinic and a penalty by David Pizarro, but Dimitris Salpingidis and then Lazaros Hristodoulopoulos equalized.
Russia’s Rubin Kazan racked up the biggest win of the day’s 15 matches, beating Hapoel Tel Aviv 3-0, while Standard Liege handed Red Bull Salzburg a 3-2 loss.
FC Twente beat Werder Bremen 1-0 and Hamburg beat PSV Eindhoven 1-0 while Hertha Berlin, the bottom-place team in the Bundesliga, drew 1-1 with Benfica.
Marseille and Copenhagen were 0-0 in Denmark until the 71st, when Mamadou Niang scored from a pass by Bakari Kone.
Jesper Groenkjaer equalized from the spot seven minutes later but Hatem Ben Arfa and Charles Kabore struck in the last six minutes to give the French side a 3-1 win.
Lille beat Fenerbahce 2-1 in the other match.
SIBLING RIVALRY: Marc Marquez was locked in a duel with his little brother, falling behind at one point before recovering for his first season-opening victory since 2014 Six-time world champion Marc Marquez yesterday won the MotoGP season-opening Thailand Grand Prix to complete a dominant debut weekend at his new Ducati Lenovo Team, having also romped to Saturday’s sprint. The Spanish great took the 26-lap grand prix by 1.732 seconds for his 63rd MotoGP victory from younger brother Alex Marquez, who is still seeking a first checkered flag, with Francesco Bagnaia third to complete an all-Ducati podium. It completed a perfect weekend for Marc Marquez, who took pole position, the sprint victory and the grand prix win for a maximum 37 points to open the 22-leg 2025 campaign. He led from
AC Milan’s slender hopes of reaching next season’s UEFA Champions League took another hit on Thursday with a 2-1 defeat at Bologna which left them eight points from Serie A’s top four. Sergio Conceicao’s team sit eighth, some way behind fourth-placed Juventus after losing an entertaining contest at the Stadio Renato Dall’Ara, a match which was rescheduled from October last year due to torrential rain and flooding. Swathes of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy, much of which is fertile agricultural land, had been left under water following a massive autumn downpour. Dan Ndoye prodded home the decisive goal in the 82nd minute
Former Australian motorcycle gang member-turned-golfer Ryan Peake, who served a lengthy jail term for assault, yesterday produced a “life-changing” maiden win to qualify for The Open Championship. Peake held his nerve for a one-stroke victory at the New Zealand Open, earning him a berth at the major in Portrush, Northern Ireland, in July, pending clearance to travel as a convicted criminal. The 31-year-old from Perth celebrated animatedly and was showered with champagne by friends on the 18th green of the Millbrook Resort course near Queenstown after a redemption story rarely seen in the refined sport of golf. Peake held back tears as he
MILWAUKEE PREVAIL: Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 28 points as the Bucks withstood Nikola Jokic’s 27th triple-double of the season to beat the Nuggets Golden State star Stephen Curry on Thursday drilled 12 three-pointers in a scintillating 56-point display that carried the Warriors to a 121-115 victory over the Orlando Magic. Curry’s explosive performance helped the Warriors dig themselves out of a 17-point hole, with the point guard signaling the start of the fightback with a three-pointer from beyond the half-court line to end the first half that pulled the Warriors within 66-52 at the break. In the third quarter, he single-handedly outscored the Magic with 22 points to Orlando’s 21. The four-time NBA champion finished two three-pointers shy of former teammate Klay Thompson’s record for most
RSS