List of All Articles with Tag 'sport'

Unai Emery insists Aston Villa must learn how to handle European football and refused to blame his changes after their sloppy 3-2 defeat at Legia Warsaw. Ernest Muci’s second-half winner clinched a deserved victory for the hosts to ruin Villa’s Europa Conference League debut. Jhon Duran and Lucas Digne twice levelled for the underwhelming visitors in the first half after Pawel Wszolek and Muci scored for Legia. It ranked as one of the worst performances in Emery’s 11 months in charge, with the manager making five changes, including giving a debut to Barcelona loanee Clement Lenglet. He said: “I believe in our squad and our players and we could have lost this game with other players on the pitch. “Every match away in Europe is difficult and this is a new step where we have to learn. “We still have the possibility to react again, we are going to play another five matches. It’s not a good result but we have to learn and have to understand how we’re going to face the next matches and this competition. “We have to build the squad who will play a lot of matches and we will need players in the squad to give them opportunities to play, to use their qualities. “In the second half we started well but in one click, we concede another opportunity and they score a goal. “They had a plan, they did good and we couldn’t stop them in some moments.” Legia struck after just two minutes in the Group E opener when Wszolek converted Patryk Kun’s cross. Duran levelled four minutes later, though, nodding in after Kacper Tobiasz turned Nicolo Zaniolo’s drive onto the bar. It should have given Villa a platform but a shoddy, slow, performance continued to undermine their tag as one of the tournament favourites. Livewire Muci punished them again after 26 minutes when Villa were left floundering on the flanks and he fired in Wszolek’s centre. But Villa came back, however undeserved, and Digne’s deflected volley ensured they went into the break level. Parity did not last long, though, when Muci went sent running at Ezri Konsa and Calum Chambers, made fools of them both and found the net off a post. This time there was no way back and Marc Gual almost added a fourth when Emi Martinez parried Bartosz Slisz’s shot and Chambers cleared. Jacob Ramsey, Moussa Diaby and Youri Tielemans tried to find an unlikely leveller but victorious Legia held on. “You should not underestimate the underdogs, Mostar will also be a hot game, a Balkan team with a lot of emotions,” said boss Kosta Runjaic, after Mostar beat AZ Alkmaar 4-3 in the other group game. “It’s surprise for me but it’s also a surprise we won against Aston Villa, I’m happy about it, this three points in the first game are very important for us. We were lucky in some moments but you need luck. “We will see how we do in the next game, we will face a very ugly Alkmaar in a couple of weeks.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Jurgen Klopp plays down value of 50th European win after Liverpool beat LASK Harry Kane happy with Bayern Munich start in Europe – Thursday’s sporting social Durham are Division Two champions after bowling out Worcestershire

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Liverpool marked its return to the Europa League with a come-from-behind 3-1 victory at Austrian club LASK in Linz

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The Minnesota Vikings host the Los Angeles Chargers

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Notre Dame hosts Ohio State on Saturday

No. 6 Ohio State visits No. 9 Notre Dame on Saturday night in one of the biggest games so far this season

Michael Beale’s Rangers get underway in the Europa League tonight after a tough time in the Champions League qualifiers saw them drop out of the competition after a 5-1 defeat against PSV. The 2022 finalists face Manuel Pellegrini’s Real Betis, who haven’t managed to make it past the round of 16 since their debut in the renamed edition of the European tournament in 2013–14. This is the first-ever meeting between the two sides, and each will hope to get some valuable points in the board to try and secure automatic qualification for the knockout stages. Follow all the latest updates from LASK vs Liverpool below and get all the latest football odds here.

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Liverpool took time adjusting to life back in the Europa League but for the fourth time in six matches this season they came from behind to win 3-1 against LASK in Linz. It had been 2,682 days since they last appeared in UEFA’s second-tier competition, having played in three Champions League finals and won one, and that adaptation to a new reality took a while to bed in. The Austrians had no such problem in the biggest game in their history as the visit of Manchester United in 2020, when they were hammed 5-0, happened behind closed doors because of the pandemic. They were so fired up they predictably took an early lead through Florian Flecker’s brilliantly-taken goal but once Jurgen Klopp’s side came to the realisation the Europa League will be just as tough a task as the competition favourites this season’s familiar trait emerged. Within the space of eight second-half minutes Darwin Nunez fired home a penalty and Luis Diaz converted from close range and late on substitute Mohamed Salah clinched Klopp’s 50th European victory, the most of any Anfield manager. Pre-match the German had insisted this was not a competition for handing out “opportunities” but then proceeded to name a completely different side from that which won at Wolves at the weekend. Not to say that it was weak with first-choice centre-backs Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate at the back and Diaz and Nunez up front but in between was the untried midfield of newest signing 21-year-old Ryan Gravenberch, on his first start, and Harvey Elliott (20) either side of the 30-year-old ‘veteran’ Wataru Endo who had played just 89 minutes for Klopp’s team since his own summer move. The real excitement was reserved for livewire winger Ben Doak, who became the club’s fourth-youngest player to play in Europe at the age of 17 years and 314 days on his first start. But while his first real run at the LASK defence saw him glide past Rene Renner to win a corner he was starved of opportunities by a malfunctioning midfield which could not gain any control in the first half and the young Scot was replaced just past the hour. Stefan Bajcetic’s misjudgement, the 18-year-old midfielder asked to play the Trent Alexander-Arnold hybrid right-back role, in missing a cross led to a LASK corner and the opening goal. Flecker was picked out on the edge of the penalty area and he took a touch before drilling a shot through a crowd of players past Caoimhin Kelleher as a training-ground move paid off from their first shot on target. Liverpool were not so clinical as Nunez headed over an inviting Elliott cross before seeing his close-range nod towards goal from Van Dijk’s header at a corner clawed out by goalkeeper Tobias Lawal. The raucous home crowd cheered not only that but every block, every tackle, every Liverpool corner repelled, every corner won. Liverpool’s first move of any quality brought the equaliser when Diaz was brought down by Philipp Ziereis, after Elliott, Doak and Bajcetic had combined down the right, and Nunez powered home from the spot in the 56th minute. It was the signal for Klopp to make changes with summer signings Dominik Szoboszlai and Alexis Mac Allister, two of his new first-choice midfield, replacing Doak and Endo with Joe Gomez giving Bajcetic a break after his first game since March after injury. They went ahead when Nunez brought down Gomez’s pass from deep, laid off to Elliott who sent Gravenberch racing down the right and his low cross was turned home by Diaz. If life was not difficult enough for the hosts Mohamed Salah was introduced in the 76th minute and created two chances and had a shot inside his first 60 seconds before weaving himself into a position to poke through the legs of the goalkeeper two minutes from time. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Aston Villa suffer defeat at Legia Warsaw on return to European action Harry Kane happy with Bayern Munich start in Europe – Thursday’s sporting social Durham are Division Two champions after bowling out Worcestershire