An easy victory and two disappointing draws… The Olympique Lyonnais (OL) won largely against the Danes of Brondby (3-0), while the other two French teams engaged in the second day of the Europa League – the AS Monaco and Olympique de Marseille (OM) – had to settle for a draw on Thursday, September 30.
The Monegasques went for a point on the lawn of Real Sociedad (1-1) and the Marseillais failed to beat the Turks of Galatasaray (0-0) in a torrid atmosphere and despite many opportunities.
At the Velodrome stadium, a header from William Saliba hit the Turkish crossbar, then a penalty was almost obtained by Matteo Guendouzi fifteen minutes from the end, but after consulting the VAR (video arbitration), he did not has not been granted.
The match was interrupted for five minutes, shortly before the end of the first period, when firecrackers and smoke were thrown from the yard where the Turkish club’s supporters were gathered. One of them hit a security officer on the lawn and another reached the North Turn where several groups of OM supporters are installed (Dodger’s, Fanatics, MTP, CAOM). Many firecrackers then exploded and provocations followed between Turkish and Marseille supporters.
AS Monaco lose the advantage
Earlier in the evening, the Monegasques had opened the scoring on their first real opportunity, Axel Disasi taking a head, at the far post, a corner obtained following a nice offensive movement. But their opponent of the day, Real Sociedead (the club from San Sebastian, in the Basque Country), reacted well and Merino equalized, with a header too, despite a desperate dive from Nübel. In this same Group B of the Europa League, the Dutch PSV Eindhoven won in Austria on the lawn of Sturm Graz (4-1), and therefore take the lead of the group with four points, like AS Monaco, but with a better goal difference.
Meanwhile, against the Danes of Brondby, OL had to wait more than an hour before finding the opening three times, thanks to a double from Karl Toko Ekambi and a goal from Houssem Aouar.
The surprise of the day in the Europa League came from Italy and the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium where Naples fell heavily (2-3) against Spartak Moscow. In another Italian-Russian shock, Lazio of Rome beat Lokomotiv Moscow (2-0).
The biggest disappointments came from Turkey, where Fenerbahçe conceded three goals (0-3) at home against Greeks Olympiakos. And Scotland, where Celtic took to the water against Bayer Leverkusen (0-4).
Rennes suffers but pockets the victory points
On the side of the Europa Conference Conference, Stade Rennais, tasteless in the first period, then went to great lengths to win Thursday in Arnhem (2-1), in the Netherlands. Tottenham’s easy victory in front of the Slovenes of NS Mura, now places Bruno Génésio’s men tied with the English at the head of group G; they should therefore compete with Spurs for the qualifying place for the round of 16 of this new European Cup where only the first of each group is directly qualified.
Shy in the first period, after conceding a first goal, Rennes was therefore much more enterprising after the break and benefited from a penalty following a fault by goalkeeper Markus Schubert on Loum Tchaouna (54e) allowing Sehrou Guirassy to equalize. It was then Kamaldeen Sulemana who punctuated with a clear strike a nice collective movement to pass in front (2-1, 70e).
Rennes then logically suffered to keep their advantage, in particular following the logical exclusion of Loïc Bade (74e) and under the repeated assaults of Yann Gboho, the young (20 years) Franco-Ivorian loaned for a season by the Bretons to their opponents of the day. But courageously, faced with a few last-minute attempts, Bruno Génésio’s men were able to leave the polder country with plenty of points.