UEFA Europa League News
Nineteen-year-old fires winner to give Villa 3-2 win
Rangers’ poor campaign ends with 3-1 loss to Porto
The 19-year-old Jamaldeen Jimoh-Aloba was the hero as Aston Villa came from two goals down to beat Red Bull Salzburg 3-2 at Villa Park, though they lost Ollie Watkins to injury in the first half.
Jimoh-Aloba hit the winner with three minutes remaining, tucking Kadan Young’s low cross into the corner to cap a fightback that looked unlikely after a limp showing for an hour.
Continue reading...Aston Villa hit back from two down to beat Salzburg, Nottingham Forest thrashed Ferencvaros and Celtic secured a playoff place
“Villa feel like a proper club again,” says your roving reporter Martin Keown at Villa Park. Not sure what “proper” means there, but OK.
“They can win the Premier League. Everyone’s saying they can’t.”
Continue reading...In a tumultuous campaign and three-way Scottish title fight, the 73-year-old manager still has ambitions on the European stage
Martin O’Neill’s involvement in celebrated European moments in Celtic’s history means he is entitled to bridle at the belief that domain is no longer a priority. O’Neill used pre-match media duties for the Europa League visit of Utrecht on Thursday to point towards what has the potential to be an uplifting few days for the Scottish champions.
“We got a result in Feyenoord and fought our guts out in Bologna,” he said. “We don’t now want to just throw it away. We want to try and go for it if we can. We could still lose the game. We might not win the match and we might go out of the competition, but we want to give it a go.
Continue reading...Rangers celebrated their first win of a troubled campaign while Forest missed a penalty and paid the price in Portugal
Fenerbahce have equalised against Aston Villa, with Kerem Aktürkoğlu getting it. It’s 1-1 in Turkey.
It’s now 2-2 in Bologna, the Englishman Jonathan Rowe has got the goal, cutting across the Celtic defence to score.
Continue reading...Manager shoves his own midfielder in stoppage time
Aston Villa into last 16 with victory at Fenerbahce
Aston Villa sealed a top-eight finish in the Europa League after Jadon Sancho’s first goal for the club gave them a 1-0 win over Fenerbahce in Turkey. But the Villa manager, Unai Emery, was involved in a touchline spat with Youri Tielemans after the midfielder was substituted in stoppage time.
Villa’s win was their sixth from seven European matches this season and ended Fenerbahce’s unbeaten home record. Sancho opened his account in Villa colours to put the visitors in the driving seat amid a loud Sukru Saracoglu Stadium atmosphere.
Continue reading...A good night for English clubs in Europe; not so much for Scotland’s representatives
Stuttgart 3-1 Maccabi Tel Aviv. Some bonus content here. No need to thank us! And there really is no need to thank us, because it comes courtesy of our old MBM and Clockwatch pal Kári Tulinius. “Stuttgart looked like they were heading to the most comfortable of home wins when they went 3-0 up after yet another defensive rick by Maccabi, when the normally reliable Alexander Nübel tried to save Roy Revivo’s shot with a hand so weak it seemed like it was made out of cottage cheese. The comedy defending moment still goes to the visitors, though, who let in an opener after a covering defender simply fell on his behind while tracking a high ball, giving Lorenz Assignon all the time in the world to measure the aim on his volley.”
Callum O’Dowda swings a ball in from the left wing. Barnabás Varga heads into the top-right corner from close range. He couldn’t miss, partly because the nearest defender, Emmanuel Fernandez, was the wrong side of the striker, facing upfield, then span around in confusion, making no challenge whatsoever. Comically poor defending.
Continue reading...Martin O’Neill’s side win 3-1 in Rotterdam
Lyon go top after 6-0 thrashing of Maccabi Tel Aviv
Martin O’Neill wrote a memorable final postscript in his history with Celtic in Europe as the interim manager led his team to a 3-1 win over Feyenoord.
Goals from Yang Hyun-jun and Reo Hatate saw Celtic come from behind before half-time and the substitute Benjamin Nygren added a late third as the Scottish champions revived their Europa League campaign.
Continue reading...The final remains curious in a Celtic context because it is the showpiece occasion the club would rather forget
It feels cruel in part to use Thursday’s meeting of Feyenoord and Celtic to reflect upon illustrious times. The Dutch side are 29th in the 36-team Europa League table, with Celtic’s position in 27th only more slightly more palatable to supporters because Rangers are bottom of the pile.
Those fans disrupted an annual general meeting to the point of abandonment last week, demonstrating the disharmony that has engulfed Celtic for months. A club that progressed to the Champions League’s knockout phase last season, looking an overdue but serious European force, have starkly regressed. Celtic have the spending power to outshine clubs who routinely embarrass them in a bigger pond than St Mirren and Motherwell occupy.
Continue reading...Incidents alleged to have happened in two matches
‘Such behaviour is contrary to the club’s values’
The Ligue 1 club Lille will pursue legal action against some of their fans after incidents of hate speech and racist insults in the visitors’ stands during their matches at Red Star Belgrade and Strasbourg last week.
“LOSC strongly condemns the unacceptable behaviour observed, as well as the hateful comments and racist insults made by certain individuals in the visitors’ section during trips to Belgrade and Strasbourg last Thursday and Sunday,” the club said in a statement.
Continue reading...There was admirable efficiency about the way Roma dealt with this trip to Glasgow. Minimum of fuss. The team from Italy’s capital did, nonetheless, meet favourable opposition when placing their Europa League bid back on track. There was a glaring gulf in quality between Roma and a Rangers side which has now lost a club record seven European games in a row.
To their credit, Rangers at least huffed and puffed during a second half when capitulation felt the more likely option. However, the game was settled as a contest by then. Rangers remain rooted to the bottom of the Europa League, which should constitute an embarrassment to a club of this standing. Roma have eyes once more on making proper impact. Their only regret here was in not delivering a scoreline appropriately depicting men against boys.
Continue reading...Martin O’Neill’s side leak three first-half goals in 3-1 defeat
Gibbs-White misses penalty as Forest held by Sturm Graz
Celtic’s revival under Martin O’Neill came juddering to a halt in Jutland after they were beaten 3-1 by Midtjylland. The Hoops’ hopes of prolonging their Europa League campaign into the knockout stages suffered a major blow as the Danes hammered in three goals in eight first-half minutes.
The teenage substitute Callum Osmand won a late penalty which Reo Hatate converted, but the 19-year-old was then taken off on a stretcher in tears after suffering what appeared to be a hamstring injury on a horrible evening for the Scottish champions.
Continue reading...The Scottish midfielder on the constant battle to keep his place, the ‘stigma’ of employing a home chef, and why he believes Aston Villa will win a big trophy soon
John McGinn has spent the best part of half an hour reflecting on his journey to this point, his next appearance for Aston Villa his 300th for the club, when he volunteers something of a confession. Asked whether he has lasered in on nutrition to maximise performance, perhaps inspired by Erling Haaland revealing his penchant for raw milk and honey, the Villa captain smiles a little sheepishly. “Yeah, I have, which makes me feel quite uncomfortable because I’m from a very humble part of the world,” he says, referring to his roots in Clydebank, a few miles north-west of Glasgow.
“They will all laugh at me and wind me up for it but I do have a chef at home. I think there is a stigma towards it: ‘Who do you think you are?’ Which I get, because it used to be me thinking that. I was more nervous about telling my siblings and my mum and dad about the idea of having a chef than actually having one. My mum and dad were always running us about to training and if my dad was cooking it was always whatever is left in the fridge.
Continue reading...Fans banned from attending match at Aston Villa
Police granted section 60 stop-and-search powers
The Maccabi Tel Aviv midfielder Issouf Sissokho urged his teammates to make their supporters smile against Aston Villa, after away fans were banned from the politically charged Europa League match on Thursday.
The Israeli club’s fans were prohibited from attending on public safety grounds but, despite the ban, West Midlands police have been granted section 60 stop-and-search powers and plan to deploy more than 700 officers around Villa Park to cope with protests and potential unrest.
Continue reading...Palace want Leeds game played on 20 December
Club have been charged by the FA over Marinakis banner
Crystal Palace have asked the Premier League to move their fixture at Leeds on Sunday 21 December to the previous day to allow them more time to prepare for their rescheduled Carabao Cup quarter-final against Arsenal.
Mikel Arteta revealed on Monday that Arsenal had requested their game at Everton on that Sunday be moved to Saturday 20 December after the EFL pushed back the last-eight tie at the Emirates to two days before Christmas.
Continue reading...Danny Röhl discovered Rangers’ problems run deeper than their former manager Russell Martin as they were blitzed 3-0 by Brann in Bergen. The 36-year-old German head coach was installed as Martin’s successor on Monday with Rangers sitting sixth in the Premiership and having lost their opening two games in the Europa League to Genk and Sturm Graz.
However, a new era at Rangers continued along familiar lines against a side third in the Norwegian top flight. Emil Kornvig scored five minutes before the break to give Freyr Alexandersson’s side a deserved interval lead, Jacob Sørensen added a second with Noah Holm firing in a third on a night when once again the beleaguered Light Blues performed to an embarrassingly low standard.
Continue reading...