Aston Villa Fall in Europa League Matchday 3 | OneFootball

There were some huge upsets, huge wins, and huge craziness across the continent in the Europa League’s Matchday 3.

UPSET: Go Ahead Eagles 2 – 1 Aston Villa

This was giant-killing of epic proportions. Go Ahead Eagles are ranked 232rd in the UEFA Club Rankings. Aston Villa are 38th. So you can understand Villa traveling to Deventer and approaching this match with some confidence, perhaps even arrogance.

That attitude seemed appropriate when Evann Guessand struck from close range in the 4th minute on the first shot of the match. By halftime, Villa recorded 11 more shots. Three were blocked, three missed the target and five were saved by Eagles’ goalkeeper Jari De Busser. Go Ahead had as many offsides as shots (3), but had drawn level in the 42nd minute from Mathis Suray’s goal off a deflected shot.. 

But Aston Villa were flat coming out of the locker room, managing only a single corner kick after a quarter-hour. Then the Dutch side caught Villa’s defense napping. Joris Kramer delivered a dime to Mats Deijl, who took it off his chest without a Villan jersey nearby, and toe-poked it past the onrushing Martinez.

Emery proceeded to make four substitutions to spark his team into some kind of reaction. It appeared to work, with Villa pressing hard on the Dutch defense. A handling offense in the 76th minute gave Villa a penalty kick with Emiliano Buendía stepping up to the spot. The Netherlands was under a Code Orange weather watch, and you could see the top of the net rippling under strong winds. Yet Buendía opted to go high with his shot, which sailed over the crossbar. Did the wind play a factor? Or simply nerves?

It don’t mean a thing if that net don’t swing. Source: Sofascore

In any event, Eagles made three defensive substitutions and held off the Aston Villa assault to register a shocking upset. 

HUGE WIN: Nottingham Forest 2 – 0 Porto

Here are the (bad) streaks Forest broke with this win tonight at the City Ground. It was their first win over European competition in six matches. It was their first clean sheet in 21 games in all competitions. The fact it came from two penalties won’t matter a bit to the supporters. It’s Dycheball, baby, and they just beat a Porto team who had been undefeated in 11 matches prior to today. Massive statement for Forest as they enter a particularly challenging set of upcoming fixtures.

BIG CRAZY: Lille 3 – 4 PAOK Salonika

This match had it all. PAOK shocked the home side by netting twice before the 23rd minute. Then in the 39th minute, the referee was summoned to the monitor after waiving off a PK appeal. He saw on the screen what the entire world saw, a PAOK defender tugging the shirt of the Lille attacker. And upheld his call!

Thirty seconds after the restart PAOK was ahead by three goals, thanks to a lovely reverse shot from Giannis Konstantelias. It was a momentum whiplash and appeared to put the game to bed. But, no!

In the second half, the game got even crazier. Lille captain Benjamin André headed in a goal in the 57th, to give the hosts hope. Then PAOK got a penalty. Andrija Žinković stepped up to the spot and totally flubbed it. Lille’s keeper Berke Özer easily stopped it. You may remember that Özer made a TRIPLE save back in Matchday 1. Hard to get past this guy.

The final 20+ minutes saw Lille score twice more, and Žinković redeem himself with another goal. Then in the 96th minute, Lille scored the equalizer. VAR stepped in, and this time the Macedonian referee Nikola Dabanović could not rule against the obvious offsides position of the goal scorer André.

Scottish Woes Continue

Despite Celtic’s come-from-behind 2 – 1 win over Austrian club Sturm Graz, who helped the Glaswegian club when Chukwuani earned a straight red in 70th for a studs-out challenge, it is a really really bad time to be a supporter of Scottish soccer. This is only the first victory in six matches for the two Premiership teams who qualified for Europa League competition this season: Rangers and Celtic.

Celtic’s neighbors and rivals Rangers were embarrassed on the road by SK Brann. The Norwegian minnows thumped them 3 – 0, indicating that Rangers’ troubles weren’t all the fault of former manager Russell Martin.

Of course, it’s a good time to be Tomi Horvat of Sturm Graz. The Slovenian midfielder scored against both Scottish teams, also notching an assist against the latter.

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