Hoops beaten again after chastening loss to Rangers
Juventus hammer NEC, Besiktas pile woe on Marseille
Celtic suffered another European embarrassment as the Scottish champions were beaten 3-1 at home by Ferencvaros in the Europa League. Just weeks on from crashing out of the Champions League qualifiers to Austrian side Lask, despite at one point holding a four-goal lead, Celtic’s defensive flaws were exposed once more.
Martin O’Neill’s team also suffered a chastening 3-0 defeat to rivals Rangers last weekend and failed to deliver on their manager’s promise to respond. Bamidele Yusuf opened the scoring for the visitors before Mika Baur equalised late in the first half. However Kristoffer Zachariassen quickly put Ferencvaros back in front before Daniel Arzani’s strike, on his return to Celtic Park, capped a fine night for Ferencvaros.
“We’re naturally disappointed getting beaten,” said O’Neill. “We started off brightly. We had a number of balls that were flashed across the goal and no one there to put the ball in the net for us.
“Their first proper attempt on goal yielded a goal for them. We came back into the game, got the equaliser just before half-time and then conceded a poor goal. We’re hit on the break for the third goal. While we had a number of balls flashed across the box, even in the last 20 minutes, we didn’t get there to the front post a number of times that could’ve kept it alive and we’re beaten in the game.
“It’s a large frustration but it’s also psychologically quite damning as well. It’s not the start we wanted. We have seven games in which to try and get some points on the board. Need to concentrate now on Sunday [against Rangers].
“Tonight was, I think, a European lesson for us in many aspects. We’ll get ourselves together. We need to re-energise ourselves as much as anything else.”
Juventus affected Dutch side NEC Nijmegen 5-0 at home with help from two errors by the goalkeeper Nikolas Polster and Marseille lost 4-1 away at Besiktas as the first round of Europa League matches wrapped up.
The first howler from Polster allowed Nicolás González to nip in ahead of him and steal the ball to give Juve the lead in the ninth minute. A goal from Kerim Alajbegovic and a penalty from Nick Woltemade sent them in 3-0 up at the break.
Zeki Celik made it 4-0 in the 75th minute before Polster again came out of his goal and failed to clear the ball; this time it was Randal Kolo Muani who rolled it into the empty net to complete the rout.
Marseille ’s start to the season continued as they followed up three straight defeats in Ligue 1 with a comprehensive beating at the hands of Besiktas, with the Turkish side scoring three goals without reply in the second half.
Earlier in the evening, Greek side OFI Crete beat Germany’s Hoffenheim 2-0 at home, while RB Salzburg picked up a 1-0 win away to Levski Sofia in Bulgaria.