Thursday, August 20, 2015

Europa League Playoff Round: Dortmund Overcome Three-Goal Hole To Upend Odd; Wolves (Midtjylland, Not Wolverhampton) Hold Saints To Game-One Draw In Southampton

The playoff round for group-stage berths in the Europa League commenced on Thursday with 22 games.

At Brest, Belarus:

Gleb Rassadkin (57') and Nenad Adamovic (90'+3) each scored a goal as Dinamo Minsk blanked visiting FC Red Bull Salzburg 2-0 in the opening contest of their two-game series.

At Baku, Azerbaijan:

Panathinaikos gained a series-opening 0-0 road deadlock with Gabala FK.

At Giurgiu, Romania:

Fernando Boldrin (25'), Denis Alibec (41'), and Alexandru Dandea (45'+3) each scored a goal as FC Astra Giurgiu overcame an early two-goal deficit and took their series opener 3-2 over visiting AZ Alkmaar.  Markus Henriksen (11') and Vincent Janssen (13') delivered the goals for the Dutch club, who still have a shot at taking the series.

At Kiev, Ukraine:

In a contest played in the Ukrainian capital due to the unstable situation in the eastern Ukraine, Michal Kucharcszyk scored the only goal of Legia Warsaw's series-opening 1-0 road win in the 48th minute.

At Amsterdam, Netherlands:

Arkadiusz Milik scored the only goal of the match in the 54th minute as Ajax Amsterdam took game one of their series with FK Baumit Jablonec 1-0 at home.

At Molde, Norway:

Tommy Hoiland (24') and Mohamed Elyounoussi (28') each delivered a goal as Molde FK blanked visiting Standard Liege 2-0 in match one.

At Thessaloniki, Greece:

Robert Mak delivered a hat trick (17', 80', 82') as PAOK FC destroyed visiting Brondby 5-0 in their series opener.

At Liberec, Czech Republic:

Lukas Pokorny scored the only goal of the match in the 79th minute as FC Slovan Liberec took their series opener from Hajduk Split 1-0 at home.

At Krasnodar, Russia:

Pavel Mamayev (10') and Fyodor Smolov (57') each converted a penalty kick as FC Krasnodar demolished visiting HJK Helsinki 5-1 on the opening game of their two-match series.

At Prague, Czech Republic:

Borek Dockal scored twice (45'+1, 90'+4) as Sparta Prague defeated visiting FC Thun 3-1 in the opening match of their series with the Swiss club.

At Chisinau, Moldova:

Romain Hamouma scored in the 40th minute as Saint-Etienne gained a series-opening 1-1 road draw with Milsami Orhei.  Crisitian (Don't Be So Nosy) Bud scored for the Moldovan club in the 56th minute to salvage the series-opening draw.

At Bucharest, Romania:

Tobias Mikkelsen (61'), Pal Andre Helland (67'), and Mike Jensen (90'+3) each scored once as Rosenborg BK broke open what was a scoreless stalemate at the one-hour mark and ended up 90 minute away from the Europa League's group stage following their 3-0 series-opening road beatdown of Steaua Bucharest.

At Bern, Switzerland:

Richard Almeida de Oliveira scored the only goal of the match in the 67th minute as Qarabag FK took their series opener with BSC Young Boys 1-0 on the road.

At Skopje, Macedonia:

Kire Ristevski's equalizer in the 85th minute enabled FK Rabotnick to salvage a series-opening 1-1 home draw with Rubin Kazan.  Gokdeniz Karadeniz scored for the Russian club in the 68th minute.

At Athens:

Robin Van Persie (remember him, Arsenal and Manchester United fans?) scored the only goal of the match in the 90th minute as Fenerbahce took the opening contest of their series with Atromitos 1-0 on the road.

At Zilina, Slovakia:

William Alves de Oliveira scored twice (77', 90'+4) as MSK Zilina erased a two-goal deficit and overcame visiting Athletic Bilbao 3-2 in their series opener.  Jakub Paur scored for the hosts in the 66th minute while Sabin Merino (16') and Enrique Sola (33') provided the scoring for the Spanish club.

At Innsbruck, Austria:

Tiago Caeiro scored the only goal of the match in the 13th minute as Belenenses will head back to Portugal following their 1-0 series-opening road win against Rheindorf Altach.

At Skien, Norway:

Pierre Aubameyang scored twice (34', 76') while Shinji Kagawa (47') and Henrikh Mkhitaryan (85') each tallied once as Borussia Dortmund overcame a three-goal deficit and upended home-standing Odds BK 4-3 in game one of their two-match series.

At Plzen, Czech Republic:

Jan Kopic scored twice (25', 82') as FC Viktoria Plzen dominated visiting FK Vojvodina 3-0 in game one.

At Poznan, Poland:

Karol Linetty (11'), Denis Thomalla (57'), and Lukasz Tralka (68') each delivered a goal in Lech Poznan's series-opening 3-0 domination of visiting Videoton FC.

At Southampton, England:

A successful penalty kick in the 56th minute from Jay Rodriguez enabled Southampton to salvage a 1-1 series-opening home draw with FC Midtjylland.  Tim Sparv scored for the visiting Wolves from Denmark in the 45th minute.

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