Europa League Thursday Review

Europa League Thursday Review

Liverpool and Juventus were held to draws while Manchester City and Atletico Madrid won on a busy Europa League night.

Liverpool claimed a well-earned Europa League 0-0 draw against Napoli in the Stadio San Paolo.

Manager Roy Hodgson's gamble in leaving at home a handful of his senior players - including Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard - paid off in some respect.

Many tipped the hopelessly out-of-form Reds for defeat after bringing a weakened side to Naples, but they withstood long spells of pressure to leave with a point.

Emmanuel Adebayor fired Manchester City to a Europa League victory with his first Blues hat-trick.

Adebayor's show, aided by cameos from David Silva and Adam Johnson, was certainly too much for Lech Poznan and put City in line to tie up a place in the final 32 with plenty to spare.

Porto survived the dismissal of a player in either half to register an impressive 3-1 away win against Besiktas in Europa League Group L.

Falcao opened the scoring for the visitors to Istanbul shortly before the half-hour while Hulk's brace sealed an emphatic win in the second half. Bobo pulled one back late on for the hosts but by then the writing was on the wall.

Rapid Vienna kept alive their hopes of progressing by recording their first victory in Group L at CSKA Sofia.

Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink and Steffen Hofmann scored in the space of five minutes either side of the half-hour mark to earn Rapid the 2-0 win.

PSV Eindhoven claimed sole leadership of Group I with a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Debrecen at the Ferenc Puskas Stadion in Hungary.

Jonathan Reis netted the winner for PSV in the 66th minute after Holland midfielder Orlando Engelaar had cancelled out Mirsad Mijadinoski's opener for the point-less hosts.

Elsewhere in Group I, Brazilian midfielder Cleiton Xavier scored the winner as 10-man Metalist Kharkiv turned in a gutsy performance to beat Sampdoria 2-1 at home.

In Group K, Utrecht and Steaua Bucharest drew 1-1, the Romanians levelling thanks to an own goal by Alje Schut after Edouard Duplan's breakthrough strike.

Clement Chantome's late equaliser snatched a 1-1 draw for Paris St Germain against Borussia Dortmund to keep them out in front at the top of Group J.

Nuri Sahin's penalty early in the second half looked like winning an end-to-end game, but PSG launched a late assault and took their reward when Chantome scored in the 87th minute.

In the other Group J clash, Sevilla were 1-0 winners at Karpaty Lviv thanks to Frederic Kanoute's first-half header.

Zenit St Petersburg moved six points clear at the top of Group G with a comfortable 2-0 win over Hajduk Split at the Petrovsky Stadium.

Luciano Spalletti's side were rarely troubled by their Croatian visitors as a goal in either half from Alexander Bukharov and Danny saw them ease to victory.

Also in Group G, Anderlecht defeated AEK Athens 3-0 at home.

Ciprian Marica's goal earned Stuttgart a 1-0 win over Spaniards Getafe in in Group H, while Young Boys beat Odense 4-2.

Serie A side Palermo suffered a shock 3-0 defeat at home to CSKA Moscow in Group A.

Seydou Doumbia scored either side of the break before Tomas Necid put the icing on the cake in the final 10 minutes. It could have been even worse for the Sicilians, who saw Vagner Love miss an early penalty for the Russians and played the last 15 minutes with 10 men.

Carlos Silvio scored nearly five minutes into added time to salvage a 3-3 draw for Lausanne away to Sparta Prague in the other match in Group A.

Marco Ruben's strike earned Villarreal a 1-0 win at home to PAOK Salonika in Group D, where Dynamo Zagreb and Club Brugge shared a 0-0 draw.

Liedson scored twice in a 5-1 win for Sporting Lisbon at home to Belgian side Gent in Group C, while Aurelien Chedjou's solitary strike earned Lille their first win, against Levski Sofia.

Juventus drew 1-1 with Red Bull Salzburg in Group A after Milos Krasic (48) cancelled out Dusan Svento's 36th-minute opener.

Atletico Madrid enjoyed a comfortable 3-0 win at home to Rosenborg in Group B.

Diego Godin's early header put the Spaniards in front. Substitute Sergio Aguero doubled the lead before Diego Costa rounded things off with a brilliant header.

Aris Salonika and Bayer Leverkusen drew 0-0.

Dynamo Kiev breathed life into their Europa League campaign with a narrow 2-1 win over AZ Alkmaar in Group E.

Artem Milevskiy put Dynamo in front just 16 minutes in and though Erik Falkenburg levelled, Yevhen Khacheridi restored the visitors' lead before the half was out.

In the night's other Group E game, Sergey Sosnovskiy's early goal handed BATE Borisov a 1-0 win away to FC Sheriff.

Match Reports and Reaction

Napoli 0-0 Liverpool

Match Reaction

Manchester City 3-1 Lech Poznan

Match Reaction

Salzburg 1-1 Juventus

Atletico Madrid 3-0 Rosenborg

Aris Thessaloniki 0-0 B. Leverkusen

Lille 1-0 Levski Sofia

Sporting Lisbon 5-1 Gent

Villarreal 1-0 PAOK Salonika

Dinamo Zagreb 0-0 Club Brugge

AZ Alkmaar 1-2 Dynamo Kiev

FC Sheriff 0-1 BATE Borisov

Palermo 0-3 CSKA Moscow

Sparta Prague 3-3 Lausanne

Anderlecht 3-0 AEK Athens

Zenit 2-0 Hajduk Split

Stuttgart 1-0 Getafe

Young Boys 4-2 Odense BK

Debrecen 1-2 PSV Eindhoven

Metalist Kharkiv 2-1 Sampdoria

B. Dortmund 1-1 Paris St Germain

Karpaty Lviv 0-1 Sevilla

Besiktas 1-3 Porto

CSKA Sofia 0-2 Rapid Vienna


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