Football | Europa League | Europa joy for Manchester clubs

Friday 17th February 2012

Europa joy for Manchester clubs

Premier League duo Manchester City and Manchester United recorded impressive away wins as they began their Europa League quest on Thursday night.

Both sides were surprise fallers from the Champions League and were promptly handed tough assignments in the last 32 of Europe's second competition.

But United left Ajax's Amsterdam ArenA with a comfortable 2-0 win, while City followed up by coming from behind to seal a 2-1 win at Porto's Estadio do Dragao.

Ajax had the better of a goalless first-half against United but the Red Devils took control after the break, with Ashley Young opening the scoring after 59 minutes and Javier Hernandez adding the second five minutes from time.

City slipped behind to Silvestre Varela's 27th-minute strike but hit back in the second half through Alvaro Pereira's own-goal and substitute Sergio Aguero's close-range winner.

Atletico Madrid also impressed, seeing off Lazio 3-1 at the Stadio Olimpico.

Germany striker Miroslav Klose gave the Serie A side the lead in the 19th minute but the Spanish side came back hard with three away goals that puts the tie firmly in their favour.

Adrian equalised six minutes after the opener, with Falcao (37, 63) scoring either side of the interval.

Valencia came away from the Britannia Stadium with a slender 1-0 lead over Stoke, with Mehmet Topal scoring a screamer.

PSV Eindhoven were 2-1 winners at Trabzonspor, Tim Matavz and Ola Toivonen both on target in the first 12 minutes before Olcan Adin hit back for the hosts.

Steve McClaren's FC Twente beat Steaua Bucharest 1-0 at home thanks to Ola John's superb lob and fellow Eredivisie side AZ Alkmaar also beat Anderlecht by a solitary goal from Adam Maher.

Maxime Lestienne put Club Brugge up at Hannover, only for Artur Sobiech and Jan Schlaudraff to claim a 2-1 win.

Wisla Krakow overcame Michal Czekaj's 26th-minute sending off to draw 1-1 with Standard Liege. Gohi Cyriac scored the resulting penalty following Czekaj's dismissal, but Tsvetan Genkov stole an 88th-minute equaliser.

Salzburg are all but out of the competition after a 4-0 drubbing by visitors Metalist Kharkiv.

They scored in the first and last minutes of the match through Taison and Bonfim Marlos, with Jonathan Cristaldo scoring twice in three minutes in between.

Lokomotiv Moscow took the win but surrendered an away goal in a 2-1 success of Athletic Bilbao.

Iker Munain put the La Liga side in front but second-half strikes from Felipe Caceido and Denis Glushakov (penalty), reversed the result.

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Schalke drew 1-1 at Viktoria Plzen, Klaas Jan Huntelaar equalising Vladimar Darida's first-half effort.

Legia Warsaw and Sporting Lisbon also drew 2-2 in Poland, with the Portuguese side equalising twice through Daniel Carrico and Andre Santos after goals from Jakub Wawrznyiak and Janusz Gol.

Udinese drew 0-0 at home to PAOK in the only goalless match of the round.

On Tuesday, Greek outfit Olympiacos recorded a 1-0 win at Rubin Kazan, while Braga fell to a 2-0 home loss to Besiktas.