The Europa League match day 3 served up some interesting matches on Thursday night with goals flying in everywhere, typical of an European footballing night.
Chelsea have all but sealed passage to the next round with a comfortable 3:1 win over Bate Borisov and academy graduate Ruben Loftus-Cheek hitting a hat-trick.
Loftus-Cheek has mostly been seen as an evidence of the blues failure to integrate a wonderful youth set up into the first team. But his performance last night will sure pitch for a more frequent playing time.
Danny Welbeck scored the only goal of the game as Arsenal beat Sporting Lisbon to extend their winning streak to 11 games. In Group E’s other game Vorskla Poltava beat Qarabag 1-0.
The Gunners are in red-hot form and also look to have sealed qualification to the next round as manage Unai Emery eyes ultimate success in a competition he has won three times as a manager.
Real Betis claimed top spot of Group F at the halfway stage with a 2-1 win at AC Milan.
The Spanish team prevailed thanks to goals either side of half-time from Toni Sanabria and Giovani Lo Celso, with Milan, who had Samu Castillejo sent off late on, getting one back from Patrick Cutrone.
The defeat further mounts more pressure on coach and club legend Gennaro Gattuso with reports indicating he might be running out of time to save his Job.
Sevilla thumped Akhisar 6-0 on Thursday night to go top of Europa League Group J on goal difference.
Roque Mesa, Pablo Sarabia, Milan Lukac, Luis Muriel, Quincy Promes and Gabriel Mercado all found the net as the Spanish side moved to six points, looking well on course to win the group.
Other matches played around grounds all over Europe, saw wins for Zenith St.Petersburg, Villarreal, Salzburg, Leipzig, Frankfurt while Besiktas had a poor show at home loosing to FC Genk.
Full time scores…
GROUP A
AEK Larnaca 1:1 Ludogorets
Zürich 3:2 B Leverkusen
GROUP J
Sevilla 6:0 Akhisarspor
Standard Liege 2:1 FK Krasnodar
GROUP K
FK Jablonec 1
FC Astana 1
Rennes 1
Dynamo Kiev 2
GROUP L
Chelsea 3
BATE Borisov 1
PAOK Salonika 0
MOL Vidi 2
GROUP B
RB Salzburg 3
Rosenborg 0
RB Leipzig 2
Celtic 0
GROUP C
FC Copenhagen 0
Slavia Prague 1
Zenit St Petersburg 2
Bordeaux 1
GROUP D
Anderlecht 2
Fenerbahçe 2
Spartak Trnava 1
Dinamo Zagreb 2
GROUP E
FK Qarabag 0
Vorskla Poltava 1
Sporting 0
Arsenal 1
GROUP F
F91 Dudelange 0
Olympiakos 2
AC Milan 1
Real Betis 2
GROUP G
Rangers 0
Spartak Moscow 0
Villarreal 5
Rapid Vienna 0
GROUP H
Frankfurt 2
Apollon Limassol 0
Marseille 1
Lazio 3
GROUP I
Besiktas 2
KRC Genk 4
Sarpsborg 08 1
Malmö FF. 1
