Malen scores twice as Aston Villa beats Young Boys in Europa League
Aston Villa beat Young Boys 2-1 in the Europa League as Donyell Malen scored twice despite being hit by a cup from the stands. Roma, Lyon, Celtic and Nottingham Forest also registered wins in a busy night of European football
London: Donyell Malen scored twice for Aston Villa in a 2-1 win over Young Boys in the Europa League on Thursday, a game that was temporarily halted because of crowd trouble after the forward was hit by an object thrown from the stands.
Malen appeared to be struck by a plastic cup after his 27th-minute goal, leaving a small cut on his head. Young Boys fans again pelted Villa players with objects after the Dutch forward doubled the lead in the 42nd minute. Some away supporters clashed with police, leading to the game being halted for about five minutes.
Young Boys captain Loris Bento pleaded with fans to calm down. Dozens of police officers in riot gear were deployed in front of the away end for the rest of the game, with no further incidents after halftime.
After a slow start to the season, Villa now has four straight wins in all competitions and four victories from five in the Europa League.
Roma bounced back from two home losses as Neil El Aynaoui struck in the seventh minute and substitute Stephen El Shaarawy added another late to secure a 2-1 win over Midtjylland at Stadio Olimpico. Roma has nine points from five games after earlier defeats to Lille and Viktoria Plzen. Midtjylland, which had won its first four games to surprisingly top the standings, pulled a goal back through substitute Paulinho in the 86th.
Elsewhere, Lille routed Dinamo Zagreb 4-0, 10-man Fenerbahce was held 1-1 by Ferencvaros, and Freiburg drew 0-0 at Plzen. Lyon ended a five-game winless streak across competitions by demolishing Maccabi Tel Aviv 6-0 away, with captain Corentin Tolisso scoring a hat trick. Bologna eased past Salzburg 4-1, Real Betis beat Utrecht 2-1 and Stuttgart routed Go Ahead Eagles 4-0. Lyon, Midtjylland and Aston Villa all have 12 points atop the table.
Rematches of European Cup finals
Nottingham Forest produced a dominant display to beat Sweden’s Malmo FF 3-0 in a rematch of the 1979 European Cup final. Malmo, then a semi-professional team, had lost 1-0 in Munich to Forest, which went on to retain the title the following year.
The teams wore the same colours as in that final, with the hosts in all red and the visitors in pale blue shirts and white shorts. Forest invited players from both 1979 teams to the City Ground for a photo before kickoff.
Captain Ryan Yates gave Forest the lead with a curling shot in the 27th minute and started the move that led to the second with a header parried by goalkeeper Melker Elborg. Arnaud Kalimuendo scored from the rebound just before interval for his first goal for the club. Nikola Milenkovic added the third in the second half.
Forest, boosted by a 3-0 triumph over Liverpool at Anfield in the Premier League on Saturday, won for the second time in this season’s Europa League under new coach Sean Dyche. Malmo is yet to win.
Celtic came from a goal down to win 3-1 at Feyenoord in a rematch of the 1970 European Cup final won by the Dutch side. Reo Hatate set up Hyunjun Yang to equalise for Celtic from a tight angle. Hatate then put the hosts ahead in the first half from the edge of the box after Daizen Maeda blocked a clearance. Substitute Benjamin Nygren added the third late. Ayase Ueda had opened the scoring early for Feyenoord.
Porto scores after 19 seconds
Gabriel Veiga gave Porto the lead against Nice just 19 seconds into their match, the sixth fastest goal in Europa League history according to UEFA. Veiga doubled the advantage after half an hour and Samu made it 3-0 from the spot.
Nice remains the only team without a point in the competition after Rangers drew 1-1 with Braga. Captain James Tavernier converted from the spot in first-half stoppage time for Rangers, but Braga equalised through Gabri Martinez despite Rodrigo Zalazar being sent off eight minutes earlier. Rangers’ Mohamed Diomande was also ejected in stoppage time.
Conference League
In the third-tier Conference League, Crystal Palace suffered a second defeat in four games, losing 2-1 at Strasbourg, while two-time finalist Fiorentina was upset 1-0 at home by AEK Athens.
