Arsenal impress in Frankfurt
● Lazio beaten by CFR Cluj ● FC Basel score five against Krasnodar ● Home wins for Roma and Man United ● Wolves beaten at Molineux
Last year's Europa League finalist Arsenal started this year's campaign on a winning note with a 3-0 away victory over 10-man Eintracht Frankfurt yesterday.
While Arsenal star striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang added a late goal, it was academy products Joe Willock and Bukayo Saka who stood out by scoring one each before that.
Sevilla, the most successful team in Europe's second-tier competition, also opened with a 3-0 victory at Qarabag while Kevin Bua struck twice to lead Basel to a 5-0 win over Krasnodar in Group C.
In late games, 2017 champion Manchester United returns to the competition with a home game against Astana and newcomer Wolverhampton Wanderers was hosting Braga.
Here's a look at Thursday's early games.
ARSENAL'S YOUNG GUNS
Arsenal manager Unai Emery started a trio of academy graduates, with Emile Smith Rowe, Saka and Willock forming a youthful attack together with Aubameyang. It was the 20-year old Willock who opened the scoring in the 38th with a deflected right-foot shot from inside the area, which bounced off the crossbar and into the net.
Frankfurt chased an equalizer before midfielder Dominik Kohr was ejected 11 minutes from time after picking his second yellow card for a tackle on Saka.
The 18-year-old Saka — who like Smith Rowe was making his first start of the season — doubled the lead with a precise leftfooter from outside the area in the 85th before setting up Aubameyang to finish it off couple minutes later.
While Arsenal looked sharp up front, its defense look shaky throughout the game and Frankfurt missed a number of good chances to score — in part thanks to a couple of good saves from backup goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez.
Arsenal captain Granit Xhaka also hit the bar from a free kick.
Standard Liege started with a 20 win over Vitoria in the other Group F game.
SEVILLA SHINES
Javier Hernandez broke the deadlock in Baku in the 62nd minute with a curling free kick for Sevilla, the Europa League winners in 2014, 2015 and 2016.
Forward Munir El Haddadi and Oliver Torres added one apiece.
In the highest-scoring game of the night, Luxembourg's Dudelange upset host APOEL Nicosia 4-3 in Group A.
ANOTHER LAZIO SLIP
Lazio once again threw away a lead to lose 2-1, this time in the Europa League against Cluj after a Bastos opener.
This is, including last season, their fifth consecutive Europa League defeat and the 11th in a row without a clean sheet.
Tucu Correa wasted a couple of promising moves and another Milinkovic-Savic header was off target on the corner.
Cluj were awarded a penalty when Lucas Leiva held back Damjan Djokovic by his shirt as a free kick came in and Ciprian Deac kept his cool to send Thomas Strakosha the wrong way. It meant Lazio continued their run of 11 Europa League matches without a clean sheet.
On the stroke of half-time, Milinkovic-Savic yet again skimmed the woodwork on a Jony set play.
Cluj introduced striker Billal Omrani and he almost made an immediate impact, sprinting away after a Bastos error and drilling the angled drive inches past the far post.
Omrani also blasted over from distance and Bastos made a decisive block to stop him tapping in, but Jony’s rocket of a half-volley stung the gloves of Arlauskis.
Just as they had done against SPAL at the weekend, Lazio went from leading 1-0 to losing 2-1 in the second half. Omrani let them off the hook once with a shot that cannoned off the crossbar, but Strakosha was stranded when the same player put a looping header into the empty net on the rebound.
Danilo Cataldi had a huge opportunity to equalise in stoppages, but his volley was well saved at the back post. Milinkovic-Savic also saw a header land on the roof of the net.
EASY FOR ROMA
Nicolò Zaniolo created one for Edin Dzeko and scored another himself, as Roma flattened Istanbul Basaksehir 4-0 in their Europa League opener.
Roma took the lead with a stroke of luck just before halftime, as Spinazzola’s cross wasn’t heading towards anyone in particular when it bounced off Junior Caicara’s hip and ricocheted into the net from six yards.
Pastore’s through ball released Dzeko and forced a great save from Mert Gunok at his feet, while Bryan Cristante tracked back to intercept a very dangerous Visca pull-back.
Roma thought they’d made it 20 when Zaniolo came sliding on to an Aleksandar Kolarov cross at the back post and Dzeko nodded in from point-blank range, but the Bosnian was offside.
Moments later, Dzeko ran clear on goal only to be denied by the on-rushing Gunok, but the goal was in the air and arrived within minutes.
It was all Zaniolo’s work, as the 20-year-old surged down the right, twisted Mehmet Topal inside out, drew the goalkeeper out and pulled back for Dzeko to tap in from six yards.
Dzeko turned assist-man instead, continuing a passing move from left to right so that Zaniolo could drill an angled drive into the far bottom corner.
Lorenzo Pellegrini blasted just wide on a Kluivert assist, then sent Nikola Kalinic clear, but the striker on his Roma debut wasted the huge opportunity by firing straight at the goalkeeper originally and on the rebound.
There was still time for one more goal, as Kluivert surged forward, cut inside on his left foot and placed a snooker shot into the far bottom corner with the last kick of the game.
YOUNGSTER GREENWOOD SCORES FOR RED DEVILS
Greenwood had broken through on United's summer tour with goals against Inter Milan and Leeds but this was the real thing. His first official goal for United, and the first of many you can be sure of that.
It ensured a happy to a night that saw Greenwood make his full European debut alongside Axel Tuanzebe, Tahith Chong and Angel Gomes.
For a long time it looked like ending in frustration. After all, nothing sums up United's fall from grace quite like Thursday night football against the champions of Kazakhstan.
Solskjaer's team have been lumped in with so many of Europe's also-rans that they kicked off their campaign all the way down in Group L.
Inevitably, there were plenty of empty seats at Old Trafford and only 230 of them were filled by Astana fans, many of whom were making the 6,000-mile round trip from Kazakhstan.
Astana had beaten FC Santa Coloma of Andorra, Valetta of Malta and Bate Borisov of Belarus in the qualifying rounds, but this was another level altogether against a much-changed United side as Solskjaer made good on his promise to give his youngsters an opportunity in this competition.
The inclusion of four youngsters meant it was a line-up with an average age of less than 24, while Sergio Romero, Fred and Marcos Rojo and Fred were also given rare starts.
Greenwood had to be happy with a place wide on the right to allow Marcus Rashford to play through the middle, and Solskjaer may have wished that the three chances squandered by Rashford in the first half had fallen to his younger teammate instead.
OTHER GROUPS
Celtic rescued a 1-1 draw at Rennes after Ryan Christie equalized from the spot in the 59th minute. M'Baye Niang had given Rennes the lead, also from the spot.
In Group B, Danish champion Copenhagen earned a 1-0 win over Lugano, while Dynamo Kyiv beat Malmo at home by the same score.
PSV Eindhoven edged past Sporting Lisbon 3-2 in Group D while newcomer LASK Linz won 1-0 against Rosenborg.