Olympiakos scored its first victory at the group stage of the Europa League, beating Dudelange 2-0 in Luxembourg on Thursday, while PAOK lost precious ground going down 2-0 at home to Hungarian champion Vidi.
Urged on by hundreds of its fans at the Josy Barthel stadium in Luxembourg, Olympiakos put an end to a winless streak of four games in all competitions and maintain its chances of making the top two of the pool that is led by Real Betis and AC Milan.
The 18th-minute introduction of Greece winger Lazaros Christodoulopoulos at injured Miguel Angel Guerrero’s place livened up the Greek team’s frontline, as he got mighty close to scoring several times, hitting the crossbar twice in the game.
Olympiakos had to wait for 66 minutes to open the score. Costas Fortounis took a corner kick that found Vassilis Torosidis, and the Greece captain headed the ball in from close range.
Then on the 81st minute Daniel Podence broke free toward the Dudelange area and fed Fortounis who doubled the Greeks’ lead thanks to a deflection at Edisson Jordanov’s leg. It has gone down as an own goal.
Olympiakos has risen to four points from three games; two weeks later it will host Dudelange in Piraeus.
At Toumba Vidi upset Greek league leader PAOK, winning 2-1 in front of Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orban who was born at Szekesfehervar, the Hungarian champions’ base.
PAOK chose to rest some of its top-pick players and was made to pay for it. Its performance against a rather mediocre side that AEK dispatched in August at the Champions League playoffs was fairly disappointing.
The visitors on the other hand were clinical in their finishing and deserved to win.
Just 12 minutes into the match Loic Nego marginally prevented to ball from rolling out and crossed the ball into the path of Szabolcs Huszti, who easily opened the score for Vidi.
One minute from half-time Stopira headed in Vidi’s second goal, eluding the marking of Leo Matos after a corner kick to silence the home crowd.
PAOK is left with three points, same as Vidi and BATE Borisov, and will visit Vidi next on November 8.
Celtic’s Europa League hopes took another bruising in a 2-0 defeat by RB Leipzig at the Red Bull Arena.
It was always going to be tough for the Scottish champions, who had not previously won away from home in 13 Europa League group games and never in Germany.
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A makeshift Hoops side shorn of several top stars made an encouraging start to the Group B match but were punished for defensive lapses, first on the half-hour mark by striker Matheus Cunha and again minutes later by attacker Bruma before the home side cruised their way through the second half.
Brendan Rodgers’ men lost 3-1 to Salzburg in their previous European fixture and the Austrian side top the section with full points after their win over bottom side Rosenborg.
Celtic have three points from nine and host Leipzig, who have six points, next month but first face a crucial Betfred Cup semi-final against Hearts at Murrayfield on Sunday.
Elsewhere, Milan’s miserable week continued following their last-gasp 1-0 defeat by city rivals Internazionale on Sunday as goals by Antonio Sanabria and Giovani Lo Celso for Real Betis condemned them to their first Europa League setback after the opening two wins in Group F.
Sanabria silenced the San Siro home crowd when he bundled the ball home from point blank range in the 30th minute and Lo Celso made it 2-0 with a thumping long-range shot shortly after the break. Patrick Cutrone pulled one back for Milan with an 83rd-minute solo effort but it was too little too late for the winners of seven European Cup titles.
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FC Zurich led and then came from behind to beat Bayer Leverkusen 3-2 at home and Zenit St Petersburg also fought back from a goal down to beat Bordeaux 2-1 at home although Artyem Dzyuba missed a penalty for the Russian side.
Two quickfire goals in the second half enabled Fenerbahce to overcome a 2-0 deficit in a 2-2 draw at Anderlecht and Dinamo Zagreb made it three wins in a row in Group D after recovering from a goal down to beat Spartak Trnava 2-1 away.
Villarreal crushed Rapid Vienna 5-0 to go joint top of Group G on five points along with Rangers, who were held 0-0 by Spartak Moscow.
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In a tightly-contested Group J, Standard Liege came from behind to beat Krasnodar 2-1 and are tied on top with Sevilla and Krasnodar on six points. Roque Mesa put Sevilla, the most successful team in Europa League history, ahead with a superb shot after seven minutes before Pablo Sarabia made it 2-0 from the penalty spot.
An own goal by Milan Lukac and efforts from Luis Muriel, Quincy Promes and Gabriel Mercado completed the rout against Akhisar.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek fired a hat-trick for his first Chelsea goals in 30 months to seal the Blues’ 3-1 win over BATE Borisov at Stamford Bridge.
Vidi won the group’s other game, beating PAOK Salonika 2-0.
Danny Welbeck scored the only goal of the game as Arsenal beat Sporting Lisbon to extend their winning streak to 11 games.
After a largely forgettable opening half, the Gunners gradually improved and took control of Group E with a 1-0 victory at the Estadio Jose Alvalade.
Welbeck had already seen a header chalked off for a foul but he was on hand to steer home in the 77th minute to settle the contest in favour of Unai Emery’s side.
FC Zurich came from behind to beat Bayer Leverkusen 3-2 and maintain their 100 per cent record in Group A.
AEK Larnaca and Ludogrets drew the group’s other game 1-1.
Frankfurt took control of Group H with a 2-0 win over Apollon Limassol, sitting three points clear of Lazio.