Acrobatic Giroud wins it for Arsenal

Arsenal beat 10-man Red Star Belgrade 1-0 in the Europa League thanks to an acrobatic late goal by Olivier Giroud, while Everton’s miserable run continued as they lost 2-1 at home to Lyon on Thursday (Friday NZ time).

The Gunners were given a fright in Belgrade when Richmond Boaqye hit the woodwork but they took advantage of Milan Rodic getting sent off in the 81st minute as Giroud leapt to scoop a cushioned header from Theo Walcott into the top corner.

Arsenal top Group H with a maximum nine points with BATE Borisov second after they beat Bundesliga side Cologne, who have lost all three games in their first European campaign in 20 years.

Everton badly needed a win against Lyon after taking one point from their previous two games but they went behind in the sixth minute to a penalty by Nabil Fekir.

Ashley Williams headed them level in the 69th after being fortunate to only be yellow-carded for igniting a mass brawl when he shoved visiting goalkeeper Anthony Lopes.

Everton nearly went ahead when a Gilfi Sigurdsson free kick came off the far post but former Chelsea forward Bertrand Traore struck to restore Lyon’s lead, leaving Ronald Koeman’s side at the foot of Group E with one point from three games.

Serie A side Atalanta lead the group on seven points after beating Apollon Limassol 3-1.

Zenit St Petersburg, FCSB and Lazio are the only other teams to have won all three of their group games as seven-times European champions AC Milan were held to a goalless home draw with AEK Athens.

Mario Balotelli opened the scoring for Nice against Lazio but the Serie A side quickly turned the game on its head to win 3-1, with Felipe Caicedo levelling soon after Balotelli’s opener and Serb Sergej Milinkovic-Savic striking twice after halftime.

Real Sociedad hammered FK Vardar 6-0.