Europa League: Liverpool, Celtic claim away draws

Bordeaux, Ajax come from behind to salvage a point each with late equalisers

PARIS: Liverpool conceded a late equaliser as they began their Europa League campaign with a 1-1 draw at Bordeaux, while 10-man Celtic drew 2-2 away to Ajax on Thursday.

Back-to-back losses to West Ham and Manchester United in the English Premier League had increased the pressure on Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers but Adam Lallana’s sublime second-half goal in France looked destined to hand the Reds all three points in their Group B opener.

The visitors were pegged back nine minutes from time though as substitute Jussie slammed a loose ball beyond Simon Mignolet to salvage a point for Bordeaux.

“We can always be disappointed to not have won after having led, but in European football, picking up a point away from home is never a bad result,” said Rodgers. “If we win our home matches we can get out of the group, we’ve done it before.”

Celtic, meanwhile, also surrendered a late goal in Amsterdam after being forced to play out the final 15 minutes a man down following the dismissal of Emilio Izaguirre.

Israeli midfielder Nir Biton silenced the home crowd with an eighth-minute opener before Viktor Fischer hauled Ajax level on 25 minutes.

Celtic then regained the upper hand three minutes before the break as Mikael Lustig powered in a back-post header from a corner.

But Honduran international Izaguirre was sent off for a second yellow after taking out Anwar El Ghazi and Lasse Schone earned Ajax a share of the spoils six minutes from the end.

Borussia Dortmund made it 10 straight wins under new coach Thomas Tuchel after the Bundesliga leaders came from behind to beat Russian outfit FC Krasnodar 2-1 in Group C.

Dortmund, who came through two rounds of qualifying to reach the group phase, fell behind after just 12 minutes in Germany as Pavel Mamaev converted a Fedor Smolov cross.

But Matthias Ginter equalised for the hosts right before half-time after heading in a cross from Park Joo-ho and the South Korean capped off his Dortmund debut in style with the winner three minutes into second-half stoppage time.

Elsewhere, Napoli thumped Club Brugge 5-0 in Group D as Jose Callejon and Dries Mertens scored twice apiece with Marek Hamsik also on target.

Marseille made an encouraging start in Group F as they won 3-0 away to Dutch side Groningen through goals from Georges-Kevin N’Koudou, Lucas Ocampos and Romain Alessandrini.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 19^th,  2015.

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