Perfect Spurs on brink of knockout stages
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Tournament favorite Tottenham Hotspur ground out a 2-0 win at FC Sheriff to stay unbeaten in the Europa League and move to the brink of qualification for the knockout stages on Thursday.
Eintracht Frankfurt, Fiorentina, Salzburg and Ludogorets Razgrad also made it three wins out of three, while Swansea City, Sevilla, Rubin Kazan and Genk dropped their first points as they were all held to 1-1 draws.
Jan Vertonghen headed Christian Eriksen’s free kick into the left of goal with Spurs’ first attack of the night in the 12th minute and Jermain Defoe sealed the result 15 minutes from time, equaling Martin Chivers club record with his 22nd goal in European competition after the English side withstood severe pressure from Sheriff.
The Moldovan team had the ball in the back of the net on the half hour but the equalizer was ruled out for offside.
“They had some great opportunities on the counterattack,” Tottenham coach Andre Villas-Boas said. “The game could have easily gone to 1-1 as after we scored they had so many chances to level.
“They looked good on the counterattack, had some great moments and we have to recognize that. A draw would be a fair result, but the second goal is always important in games like this, so both teams were creating. We were fortunate to get the second goal to kill the game, but it could have gone the other way.”
Tottenham has yet to concede in the opening three games this season and is five points clear of Anzhi Makhachkala, which beat Tromso 1-0.
Frankfurt also kept a third straight clean sheet as it won 2-0 at home against 10-man Maccabi Tel Aviv. The visitors were forced to play 56 minutes at a numerical disadvantage after Ben Haim was sent off for a second bookable offense.
Vaclav Kadlec put Frankfurt in front in the 13th and Alexander Meier doubled the German side's lead eight minutes into the second half.
In the other Group F game, Bordeaux picked up its first points of the campaign as Carlos Henrique headed home in the final minute to hand the French side a 2-1 win over Apoel Nicosia.
Ludogorets Razgrad has also yet to concede after the Bulgarian team won 1-0 at Chornomorets Odesa.
Fiorentina, which rallied from two goals down to beat Juventus 4-2 in Serie A at the weekend, comfortably beat Romania's Pandurii Targu-Jiu 3-0 to maintain its status as one of the competition favorites.
Joaquin opened the scoring in the 26th after skipping past two defenders and forcing his way into the area. Ryder Matos doubled Fiorentina's lead eight minutes later before Juan Cuadrado sealed the result in the 69th.
Oleksandr Yakovenko also hit the crossbar for Fiorentina, while Cuadrado fired off the upright in stoppage time.
“We’re not running away with the group but we’ve almost qualified for the next round,” Fiorentina coach Vincenzo Montella said. “But we want top spot so we avoid drawing a Champions League team in the knockout stages.”
Meanwhile, Valencia won over its disgruntled fans with a fine 5-1 victory over Swiss side St Gallen. Valencia was stunned by a 0-3 defeat to Swansea in its opening Europa League match but recovered with a 2-0 win at Kuban Krasnodar on match-day two.
It is now just one point behind Swansea after a late goal saw the English Premier League side held 1-1 by Kuban Krasnodar, which had no points and had not even scored heading into the match.
Former Liverpool and Marseille striker Djibril Cisse scored from the spot in stoppage time after Ibrahima Balde was fouled by Swansea goalkeeper Gerhard Tremmel. Michu broke the deadlock in the 68th.
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