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September 17, 2016

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Inter suffers home loss to Beer-Sheva

THREE-TIME European champion Inter Milan was stunned 0-2 at home by Israeli side Hapoel Beer-Sheva as the Europa League group stage got under way on Thursday.

The Israeli champion scored twice through Miguel Vitor and Maor Bar Buzaglo in the second half to silence a sparsely populated San Siro and inflict a painful defeat on Inter manager Frank de Boer in his first European game at the club.

Competition favorite Manchester United’s trip to Rotterdam turned sour when Feyenoord’s Tonny Trindade applied a slide-rule finish late in the second half to secure a shock 1-0 win in Group A following a poor display from Jose Mourinho’s star-studded side.

Zenit St Petersburg pulled off one of the most impressive fightbacks in European competition history when it came back from 0-3 down against Maccabi Tel Aviv to win 4-3 with all the Russian side’s goals coming from the 77th minute onwards.

AS Roma was held to a 1-1 draw at Viktoria Plzen, while fellow Italian side Sassuolo, which is making its European debut, enjoyed a superb 3-0 win over Athletic Bilbao.

Beer-Sheva, playing in the Europa League after falling into Europe’s second-tier competition following a UEFA Champions League playoff defeat by Celtic last month, largely dominated a sluggish Inter side.

Inter is continental royalty and boss De Boer has European pedigree, as a player at least, having won the UEFA Cup and the UCL with Ajax Amsterdam in the 1990s, but his team was picked apart and fell behind nine minutes after the break.

Portuguese defender Vitor tapped in the opener from a cross by Lucio Maranhao and Buzaglo curled home a free kick in the 69th to wrap up the win, leaving its players celebrating a remarkable result with a small group of ecstatic fans.

Thursday’s action featured the quickest goal in the competition’s history when Slovan Liberec’s Jan Sykora scored after 10.69 seconds in a 2-2 draw with Qarabag but late goals were the order of the day as Zenit fought back in Israel.

Zenit looked beaten when it fell 0-3 behind in the 70th against Maccabi but Aleksandr Kokorin headed home to begin the comeback before Eli Dasa was sent off for the Israelis in the 81st.

Further Zenit goals soon after from Brazilians Mauricio and Giuliano drew the Russians level and Luka Djordjevic remarkably grabbed the winner two minutes into stoppage time.

Italian striker Mario Balotelli was making his European debut for Nice but his new side lost 0-1 at home to Schalke 04 with Baba Rahman scoring a 75th-minute winner.

Premier League side Southampton won 3-0 against visiting Sparta Prague with a Charlie Austin double, while last season’s beaten semifinalist Villarreal won 2-1 at home to Zurich.


 

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