UEL: Former Arsenal captain saves Marseille, Brighton loses at home to AEK

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Last updated 18 fevereiro 2025

UEL: Former Arsenal captain saves Marseille, Brighton loses at home to AEK

Rhapsody of goals, chances and surprises in Group B of the Europa League. In tonight matches, Ajax drew against Marseille (3-3) in a duel of two in-crisis clubs, while Brighton plays excellent in the Premier League, but is totally inexperienced in Europe. The Seagulls fell behind twice, before equalizing both time from the spot but eventually lost to the Greek club AEK 3-2.One of the most exciting duels in the first round of Europa League was seen at the Johan Cruyff Arena, where two wonded European giants played a goal-happy match with five goals and 24 shots. Ajax is nowhere near it's form when Erik ten Hag was in charge and even allowed Feyenoord to win Eredivisie title last night. Their newly appointed sports director is under investigation over a player's transfer and the club has only one win in five matches in all competition so far. Marseille is even in the worst situation, even thou they are only two points away from the first place, as their fans threatened the coach and the president, forcing them to resign.After 20 minutes it looked like Marseille will be slaughtered since it was already 2-0, thanks to goals from Carlos Borges (Manchester City) and Steven Berghuis (Tottenham). But Marseille has players with individual qualities and they used their knowledge to equalize the score throught Clauss (23rd minute) and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (38). Ajax managed to score another one in the 52th minute and looked a better team before former Arsenal, Chelsea and Barcelona man took a strong shot inside the penalty area for the final 3-3.Brighton fans were happy to see their club making a maiden appearance in Europe but it was a roller coaster performance from their team, which showed them that excellent displays in the strong Premier League doesn't necessary means wins in Europe. AEK decided to leave possession to the Seagulls and used their mistakes to take the lead twice, but both times their own stupidity in defense allowed Joao Pedro to score a brace from the penalty spot. But, the Greeks eventually won, when Ponce used a defensive error from De Zerbi's men to leave for Greece with all three points.UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE - MATCHDAY 1ThursdayLASK - Liverpool 1-3 (1-0)/Flecker 14 - Nuneza 56, Diaz 63, Salah 88/St.Gilloise - Toulouse 1-1 (0-1)/Amoura 69 - Dallinga 45/Panathinaikos - Villareal 2-0 (1-0)/Ionnaidis 38, Sporar 78/Rennes - Maccabi Haifa 3-0 (2-0)/Blas 1, Truffert 31, Yildirim 55/Servette - Slavia Praha 0-2 (0-1)/Masopust 32, Ogbu 58/Sheriff Tiraspol - Roma 1-2/Tovar 57 - Kiki (og) 45-2, Lukaku 65/Leverkusen - Hacken 4-0 (2-0)/Wirtz 11, Adli 16, Boniface 66, Hofmann 70/Qarabag - Molde 1-0 (0-0)/Andrade 55/Olympiakos - Freiburg 2-2 (1-1)/El Kaabi 40, 74 - Sallai 9, Grifo 45+7/West Ham - TSC Backa Topola 3-1 (0-0)/Petrovic (og) 66, Kudus 70, Soucek 82 - Stanic 47/Ajax - Olympique Marseille 3-3 (2-2)/Forbs 9, Berghuis 20, Taylor 52 - Clauss 23, Aubameyang 38, 78/Brighton - AEK 1-2 (1-2)/Joao Pedro 30, 67 - Sidibe 11, Gacinovic 40, Ponce 84/Rangers - Betis 0-0 (0-0)/Sima 67/Sparta Praha - Aris Limmasol 3-2 (2-1)/Krejci 20, 25, Vitik 67 - Kokorin 11, Babicka 90/Atalanta - Rakow 2-0 (0-0)/De Keteleare 49, Ederson 66/Sturm - Sporting 1-2 (0-0)/Boving 58 - Gyokeres 75, Coates 84/