PARIS: Rasmus Hojlund scored twice as Manchester United marked Ruben Amorim’s first game at Old Trafford with a come-from-behind 3-2 victory over Bodo/Glimt in the Europa League on Thursday, while Tottenham Hotspur conceded late to draw 2-2 with AS Roma and leaders Lazio were held to a scoreless draw by Ludogorets.

Athletic Bilbao enjoyed an easy 3-0 win over Elfsborg and Eintracht Frankfurt, the 2022 Europa League winners, beat Midtjylland 2-1 to draw level on 13 points with Lazio at the top the 36-team standings as Galatasaray and Anderlecht were held to draws.

Like in the new-look Champions League, the top eight teams after the eight-round league phase advance directly to the round of 16 in March, and teams placed from ninth to 24th enter a playoffs in February.

Among other results, Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce rebou­nded from their first defeat at AZ Alkmaar (3-1) with a 2-1 win at Slavia Prague, Olympique Lyonnais ran out 4-1 winners against Qarabag, Rangers won 4-1 at Nice, Ajax Amsterdam lost 2-0 to Real Sociedad and Braga eased past Hoffenheim 3-0.

United trailed late in the first half against Norwegians Bodo/Glimt, but recovered to post a second straight Europa League win since sacking Erik ten Hag, having started the campaign with three consecutive draws.

“Half of the stadium doesn’t know me, I came from Portugal and I did nothing for this club. Yet the way they make me feel at home is special,” Amorim told TNT Sports. “I see what what everybody sees: good moments, difficult moments. There was some confusion in the end, trying to hold on to the result, but the lads did a great job. They ran, they pressed, they tried to do the things we have worked on in the last three days and we won.”

United scored in the second minute of former Sporting Lisbon boss Amorim’s first match as manager at Ipswich on Sunday and it took under 60 seconds for them to break the deadlock against Bodo/Glimt.

Visiting goalkeeper Nikita Haikin was put under pressure by a poor back-pass and his clearance was blocked by Hojlund, allowing Alejandro Garnacho to tap into an empty net.

But United’s defensive frailties were laid bare as Hakon Evjen equalised in the 19th minute with a perfectly directed first-time left-foot strike from the edge of the area and Philip Zinckernagel gave the Norwegian champion the lead four minutes later, finishing off a fast counter after Tyrell Malacia failed to stop him.

United looked short of ideas until the stroke of half-time when Noussair Mazraoui’s cross found Hojlund, who flicked the ball up with a clever touch and calmly volleyed into the bottom corner.

The hosts reclaimed the lead less than five minutes after the restart, as Manuel Ugarte squared the ball across the face of goal for Hojlund to prod home and United’s second successive win moved them up to 12th in the standings on nine points.

In London, Spurs failed to back up their stunning weekend win over Manchester City as Mats Hummels scored in injury time to snatch a 2-2 draw for Roma.

Tottenham also made a fast start as Son Heung-min slotted in a penalty in the fifth minute after Pape Matar Sarr was brought down by Hummels.

Evan Ndicka flicked in Paulo Dybala’s free-kick to level for Roma a quarter of an hour later, before Brennan Johnson restored Spurs’ advantage 11 minutes before the break.

Crisis-hit Roma piled the pressure on late at the Tottenham Stadium and former Germany centre-back Hummels pounced from close range in added time.

Ange Postecoglou’s Spurs slipped to ninth on 10 points, with Roma 21st on six.

“We should have shown a bit more composure,” said Postec­oglou. “We had a couple of chances cleared off the line. We sort of kept them in the game.”

BILBAO, EINTRACHT JOIN LAZIO AT TOP

Lazio, who had won all four previous games, were held to a frustrating draw by Bulgarian side Ludogorets who came to defend at Stadio Olimpico.

In Spain, Bilbao cruised past Swedish side Elfsborg thanks to goals from Adama Boiro, Benat Prados Diaz and Gorka Guruzeta.

Eintracht, also flying high in the Bundesliga, beat Midtjylland in Denmark with Hugo Larsson putting them ahead early on and Omar Marmoush’s penalty sealing the win.

Anderlecht were denied the chance to move level with Lazio by a 2-2 home draw with Porto, the Belgians twice coming from behind and Francis Amuzu netting four minutes from time to salvage a draw.

Galatasaray are also on 11 points after they were held to a 1-1 home draw by Alkmaar. Victor Osimhen equalised for the Turkish club before halftime with his third goal in his last two Europa League games. Sven Mijnans scored early for Alkmaar, who finished the game with 10 men after substitute Kees Smit was sent off in injury time.

Ajax remained on 10 points and are sixth in the standings despite defeat at Sociedad, moving the Spanish side up to 16th on seven points.

Lyon are also on 10 points in seventh place after their rout of hosts Qarabag in Azerbaijan. Georgia striker Georges Mikaukadze scored two goals while substitute Corentin Tolisso and Malick Fofana added one each for Lyon.

The Ligue 1 club sit above eighth-placed Rangers on goal difference after the Scottish giants, struggling domestically, thumped Nice on the French Riviera. Hamza Igamane netted twice after Vaclav Cerny and Moh­ammed Diomande put the Scottish side two goals up. Nice are second from bottom on two points.

Maccabi Tel Aviv earned their first victory of the competition with a 3-1 win at Turkish side Besiktas, in a game played in Debrecen, Hungary for security reasons. At 2-1 down Besiktas had a chance to level but Ciro Immobile’s penalty was saved and Weslley Patati put the Israeli side out of sight 10 minutes from time.

Dynamo Kyiv lost their fifth straight game, this time 2-1 to Viktoria Plzen. The consolation goal for the Ukrainians, scored by Vladyslav Kobaiev in stoppage time, was the first for Dynamo in the competition.

CHELSEA MARCH ON

Chelsea remained top of the third-tier Conference League table with a fourth straight win by beating Heidenheim, who lost their 100-percent record, 2-0.

A much-changed Chelsea had to wait until six minutes after the restart to break the deadlock as Christopher Nkunku took a brilliant touch to control Jadon Sancho’s cross before firing into the top corner.

The German side improved after falling behind, though, and almost equalised in the 69th minute when Chelsea goalkeeper Filip Jorgensen produced a wonderful double save to deny Paul Wanner and Leo Scienza.

The two-time European champions killed the game off with four minutes left as Sancho notched his second assist of the match, teeing up Mykhailo Mudryk to drive a shot into the roof of the net after playing a one-two with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.

Legia Warsaw remained the only other perfect team after a 3-0 win at Omonia.

Published in Dawn, November 30th, 2024