English sides Arsenal and Everton suffered contrasting fortunes in their respective UEFA Europe League (UEL) games on Thursday night.
North London giants Arsenal have a foot in the next round after they maintained their hundred percent start to the European season. French striker Olivier Giroud scored in the 85th minute to give the Gunners a slim 1-0 win against 10-man Crvena Zvezda.
The hosts had Milan Rodic sent off for two yellow cards with ten minutes to go paving the way for the aforementioned Giroud to score goal no. 101 in an Arsenal shirt some five minutes later to extend their lead in Group H to five points.
In Group E, Everton continued their wretched start to the season with a 2-1 home defeat to French club Olympique Lyon in what was a tense affair between the two sides.
Lyon took an early lead through a Nabir Fekir penalty after young defender Mason Holgate was penalised for a foul in the box and it was not until the second half that the home side equalised courtesy Ashley Williams. The joy of equalising was however shortlived for the home side as former Chelsea star Bertrand Traore netted the winner six minutes later.
The loss means Everton have just one point from three games in Group E and have made the worst start ever by an English club in the competition to pile further misery on manager Ronald Koeman.
Matchday 3 Results
Group A
FC Astana 4-0 Maccabi Tel Aviv
Villareal 2-2 Sparta Prague
Group B
Dynamo Kyiv 2-2 Young Boys
Skenderbeu 0-0 Partizan Belgrade
Group C
Sporting Braga 0-2 Ludogorets Razgrad
TSG Hoffenheim 3-1 Istanbul Basaksehir
Group D
AC Milan 0-0 AEK Athens
Austria Wien 1-3 Rijeka
Group E
Everton 1-2 Lyon
Atalanta 3-1 Apollon Limassol
Group F
FC Sheriff 1-1 Lokomotiv Moscow
Zlin 1-1 FC Copenhagen
Group G
Hapoel Beersheva 1-2 Steaua Bucharest
Lugano 3-2 Viktoria Plzen
Group H
Crvena Zvzeda 0-1 Arsenal
BATE Borisov 1-0 FC Cologne
Group I
Konyaspor 0-2 Salzburg
Marseille 2-1 Vitoria Guimares
Group J
Oestersunds 2-2 Athletic Bilbao
Zorya 2-1 Hertha Berlin
Group K
Nice 1-3 Lazio
Zulte-Waregem 1-1 Vitesse
Group L
Vardar 0-6 Real Sociedad
Zenit 3-1 Rosenborg
