All three Ligue 1 Conforama clubs were defeated on another disappointing night of UEFA Europa League action for the French teams.
UEFA Europa League
Group C
FC Zenit Saint Petersburg 2-1 Girondins de Bordeaux 
This was a hugely frustrating outing for the visitors as Bordeaux were the superior side in the first half and deservedly went in front in the 26th minute when Jimmy Briand ended his six-match goalscoring drought by heading home a Yann Karamoh cross.
Bordeaux, however, have won only once in eight away dates in all competitions this season and they paid for missing chances, the absence of injured attacker François Kamano keenly felt. Giant Russian forward Artem Dzyuba produced a diving header from an Elmir Nabiullin cross to equalise (41′).
Bordeaux goalkeeper Benoît Costil kept his side in it as he kept out a Dzyuba penalty, and he also saved well from Daler Kuzyaev (64′). Five minutes from time, however, the hosts took the points as Dzyuba set up Kuzyaev to finish left-footed.
Group H
Olympique de Marseille 1-3 SS Lazio 
OM have only one point from their opening three matches, quite a decline for last season’s finalists in this competition. Lazio opened the scoring with the first chance of the match (10′) as former Monaco defender Wallace headed a curling Lucas Leiva corner beyond Steve Mandanda.
Ciro Immobile (21′) hit the post as OM were rattled. Rudi Garcia’s men struggled to create chances as the Serie A side sat deep. Morgan Sanson (56′) shot wide when free near the penalty spot and was left to rue his profligacy as Felipe Caicedo (59′) finished with a precise shot after an Immobile pass.
Home captain Dimitri Payet (86′) gave OM hope with a brilliant free-kick from 25 metres but the grandstand finish the Orange Vélodrome was hoping for didn’t materialize. Instead, visiting substitute Adam Marušić made the points safe with a magnificent left-footed strike.
Group K
Stade Rennais FC 1-2 FC Dynamo Kyiv 
Rennes slipped to third in their group as they were undone by a sucker punch late on against ten-man Dynamo Kyiv. The warning signs were there for Sabri Lamouchi’s side when Mykola Morozyuk struck Abdoulaye Diallo’s crossbar (2′).
Tomasz Kędziora (21′) gave the visitors from Ukraine the lead with an extraordinary shot into the top corner from fully 35 metres. But Clément Grenier (40′) equalised from a 25-metre free-kick as goalkeeper Denys Boyko didn’t exactly cover himself in glory.
Volodymyr Shepeliev was sent off for a second yellow card (84′) and with the xtra man Rennes pushed for the winner. It backfired as Vitaliy Buyalskiy finished off a fine counter-attack. Rennes could still have salvaged a point but Benjamin André (90+2′) miscued.
Be the first to comment