Olympiakos surrendered its early lead as it crumbled at Milan to concede three goals in 10 minutes, but PAOK built on its own early lead to defeat host BATE Borisov in Thursday’s group games for the Europa League.
AC Milan beat Olympiakos 3-1 at the San Siro despite the Greeks’ lead up to the 70th minute through a Miguel Angel Guerrero strike on the 14th minute.
The Reds, featuring a completely changed lineup from the home loss to PAOK on Sunday, appeared to hold on to their advantage against a frustrated Milan. However the introduction of Patrick Cutrone and Hakan Calhanoglu tipped the balance in the Italians’ favor.
It was Cutrone who equalized for the hosts on the 79th and Calhanoglu who fed Gonzalo Higuain six minutes later and the Argentine made it 2-1 for Milan. Then Calhanoglu spotted Cutrone in the box and he sealed it for the “Rossoneri”.
Olympiakos is therefore left with one points from two games in the group and will face Dudelange of Luxembourg in its next two games.
PAOK, on the other hand, enjoyed a dream start to its game against BATE in Belarus to win 4-1 and claim its first points in the group.
Aleksandar Prijovic opened the score with barely six minutes on the clock. The goal stunned the hosts who were unable to cope with the Greeks’ pressure.
PAOK’s Brazilian winger Leo Jaba made the most of that from the left flank and scored twice within six minutes, on the 11th and the 17th to take the game beyond the hosts. He finished his best game with PAOK bagging two goals and two assists.
Substitute Maksim Skavysh headed home BATE’s consolation on the 61st minute, before Jaba fed Dimitris Pelkas who made it 4-1 for PAOK on the 73rd.
Up next PAOK faces two matches with Hungarian champion Vidi.
Also on Thursday Apollon Limassol remarkably back from 2-0 down to Marseille at home (in Nicosia) to draw 2-2, with the equalizer coming on the 90th minute.
rsenal eased to Europa League victory against Qarabag on Thursday night – but they were far from their best in Baku.
Sokratis Papastathopoulos opened the scoring early on before the visitors had to withstand plenty of pressure until Emile Smith Rowe’s first senior goal and a first for club for Matteo Guendouzi secured a 3-0 win which flattered Unai Emery’s side.
The Arsenal head coach opted to bring the likes of Mesut Ozil, Alexandre Lacazette and Granit Xhaka on a near 5,000-mile round-trip despite a tricky visit to Fulham early on Sunday – but they were named on a strong bench at the Baku Olympic Stadium.
Qarabag, the reigning Azerbaijan Premier League champions, had a terrible record against English teams – played four, lost four and conceding 14 goals across matches against Tottenham and Chelsea.
But they held their own for much of a contest in which they were equal to an Arsenal side showing nine changes from the weekend win over Watford.
The Gunners were on the front foot immediately as fit-again Sead Kolasinac’s low cross was contested by Qarabag goalkeeper Vagner and Danny Welbeck, with the loose ball breaking for Mohamed Elneny, whose low shot was blocked behind for a corner.
The Egypt international took the resulting set-piece, with Sokratis turning home his first Arsenal goal from close range following Nacho Monreal’s initial header – although he appeared to know little about it.
A flowing move forward should have resulted in a second for the visitors but Smith Rowe, making his first European start for the club, failed to turn in Kolasinac’s cross at the back post.
Emery had set up with a back three and they were tested on a couple of occasions in the first half, especially as Mahir Madatov danced past Kolasinac and got a shot away which Bernd Leno did well to keep out.
The German goalkeeper was on hand again soon after to keep out a strike from the lively Filip Ozobic.
Emery introduced one of his key men, Lucas Torreira, at the start of the second half as he abandoned his three-man defence with the withdrawal of Monreal.
But Qarabag were still threatening and Madatov finished coolly past Leno, only to have the goal rightly ruled out for offside.
Arsenal heeded their warnings and doubled their lead moments later as Alex Iwobi fed Smith Rowe and the 18-year-old slotted in his first senior goal with aplomb.
Despite a two-goal cushion, Emery felt the need to introduce both Ozil and Lacazette from the bench as the second half wore on.
The game was killed off by Guendouzi’s fine finish 11 minutes from the end, a goal which added gloss to the scoreline and was harsh on a spirited Qarabag outfit.
But it also secured an eighth consecutive win in all competitions for Emery’s men and means they can take control of Group E with victory at Sporting Lisbon later this month.
Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri has backed forward Alvaro Morata to “restart” his season after the Spaniard scored in the 1-0 Europa League victory over Hungarian champions Vidi on Thursday.
The goal was Morata’s second in 10 appearances this season but the striker also had a glaring miss in the first half, shooting wide when one-on-one with the goalkeeper to underline his continuing crisis of confidence.
Morata missed several other chances before scoring 20 minutes from time and Sarri is hopeful the striker will gain enough confidence from the goal to kickstart his season.
“It’s very important for him to score,” the Italian said. “He played a very good match. I think Alvaro can restart from this performance.”
Morata became Chelsea’s record signing when he joined the club under Sarri’s predecessor Antonio Conte last year, but the forward has struggled to adapt to the pace and physicality of the English game.
Sarri is short of attacking options, with Olivier Giroud, who has not scored for Chelsea in seven appearances this season, the only other traditional centre forward available.
“At the moment we have Alvaro and Giroud but we have to play every three days for a long time,” Sarri said. “And so Morata is a very important player for us, for our season.
“For Alvaro Morata, it’s very important to score and very important to play well too for the team, like he did in this match.”
Victory lifted Chelsea to the top of Group L in the Europa League. Sarri’s team are third in the Premier League and visit Southampton on Sunday.