AEK Athens v Brighton, Backa Topola v West Ham, and more: Europa League – live
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Key events
Goal! AEK 0-1 Brighton (Joao Pedro, (55 pen)
A kerfuffle ahead of the penalty, with AEK players trying to rough up the spot. Joao Pedro is unruffled and sends Stankovic the wrong way. Brighton have a lead from nowhere.
Penalty to Brighton!
AEK 0-0 Brighton: Verbruggen makes a good save, from Gacinovic after Igor makes a mistake in midfield. Veltman’s lunge probably put the shooter off. Then Brighton mount an attack, and there’s a VAR look, booed by fans, as the referee is called to the screen, Was Joao Pedro tripped? It looked like it.
AEK 0-0 Brighton: Chris Paraskevas gets in touch: “Only a decade ago AEK were a club with a bleak future: relegated for the first time ever in 2013 amidst great financial uncertainty. To be competing in Europe in their own stadium represents a remarkable revival.”
“After giftwrapping six points for Marseille, they’ll need to summon the traditional Ancient Greek warrior spirit tonight to flip this group again, channeling their inner Jason And The Argonauts (1963) and Xena: Warrior Princess (1995).”
Brighton need to summon their inner Pinkie Brown or Steve Foster.
Back away we go for the second halves. Might something more positive happen for England’s brave venturers?
Half-time Europa League scores
Group A
Backa Topola 0-0 West Ham
Freiburg 4-0. Olympiacos
Group B
AEK Athens 0-0 Brighton
Group C
Sparta Prague 0-0 Real Betis
Group D
Atalanta 1-0 Sporting
Sturm Graz 0-0 Rakow Czestochowa
Group F
Maccabi Haifa 0-1 Rennes
Half-time: Backa Topola 0-0 West Ham
Not easy in Serbia for the Hammers, who despite the lack of Jarrod Bowen have the talent on the field to do rather better than this.
Half-time: AEK 0-0 Brighton
Roberto de Zerbi’s team have been hanging on in Athens. After Evan Ferguson had an early chance he and his fellow attackers have been passengers. The Brighton defence, including young Jack Hinshelwood at left-back, have been put through their paces.
AEK 0-0 Brighton: Matías Almeyda, the Athens boss, grimaces on the halfway line. He has the look of 2000s Bowie, when the Dame grew his hair long again.
AEK 0-0 Brighton: So close for AEK. Zuber, who has been excellent, finds space and shot comes off the keeper and the rebound comes off the bar
Goal! Freiburg 4-0 Olympiacos (Kiliann Sildialli 42)
Fair to say Freiburg have taken control of West Ham’s group.
AEK 0-0 Brighton: Joe Pearson gets in touch. “Given his performances at Russia 2018 (about my only exposure to his play), I’ve held the impression that Vida is kind of a dirty player. Not Ramos level dirty, but dirty enough. Thoughts?”
Hard but fair and a better, classier player than his rather scary looks would suggest. He’s won four titles in four different countries.
Goal! Freiburg 3-0 Olympiacos (Gregoritsch 36, hat-trick)
Backa Topola 0-0 West Ham: David Moyes is audible on the sideline in Serbia. His team haven’t given him much chance of staying calm. Fabianski is called upon to make a save after a communication breakdown in midfield.
AEK 0-0 Brighton: Zuber gets a decent chance at a header; Brighton by far the team under pressure here.
Goal! Maccabi Haifa 0-1 Rennes
AEK 0-0 Brighton: AEK feature the other Amrabat, Nordin, once of Watford, brother of Sofyan and looking quite handy for a 36-year-old. He may define the words “well-travelled”.
Backa Topola 0-0 West Ham: Milovanovic is given rather too much space in the West Ham box before Ben Johnson has to come across and hoof away. The Hammers have been not great so far.
Goal! Atalanta 1-0 Sporting CP (Scamacca, 23)
The former Hammers on the mark for his latest Italian club.
AEK 0-0 Brighton: Another decent attack from AEK, with Gacinovic played in by Mantalos but unable to make Verburggen work from that angle. Brighton are coughing up chances and territory.
AEK 0-0 Brighton: Pineda again at the centre of things and Verbruggen has to scramble across and lie on the ball. Brighton seem a tad disjointed.
Backa Topola 0-0 West Ham: Benrahma booms the ball in from the left, and there’s a handball call. It might have been a penalty in Paris on Tuesday. By Thursday, it probably isn’t. The Hammers appeal in vain.
AEK 0-0 Brighton: Pineda, the AEK playmaker, smashes the ball wide from a hurried Mitoma clearance.
Backa Topola 0-0 West Ham: The Hammers sitting back but those Freiburg goals means the German team are topping the group. David Moyes will not want that extra play-off match.
AEK 0-0 Brighton: Some comedy stuff from the AEK defender, Vida, he of the Croatian World Cup team, who plays a no-look pass to an unsuspecting keeper, Stankovic, who has to scamper back across.
Goal! Freiburg 2 Olympiacos 0 (Michael Gregoritsch 8)
Goal! Freiburg 1 Olympiacos 0 (Michael Gregoritsch 3)
Goal! Besiktas 0 Club Brugge 1 (Casper Nielsen 4)
AEK 0-0 Brighton: Ferguson springs the high line of AEK and forces a fine save from the keeper, and then Dunk heads the corner back across goal. Could Ferguson have been braver there?
And away we go across Europe….
It’s all go, let’s see what this magical night can bring.
David Moyes has been speaking to TNT Sports: Divin Mubama “deserves his opportunity. He’s been knocking on the door and training well. He made an impact at the weekend. He’s been around the first team and been involved in a lot of these games in the last year, so he’s no stranger to it. Hopefully he will do well and get a couple of goals.
“If we can do it tonight it will be great. We’ve done well in Europe and away from home in the past few years and it would be nice to do the same tonight.”
For West Ham, Divin Mubama starts up front with both Jarrod Bowen and Michail Antonio missing, with Mo Kudus, Emerson Palmieri and Edson Alvarez also out. There’s been an outbreak of illness in the Hammers camp.
That’s four changes for Brighton, who have lost Tariq Lamptey and Ansu Fati to long-term injuries, with Jack Hinshelwood at left-back and Bart Verbruggen in goal, Karou Mitoma and Igor Julio coming in.
Here’s the Brighton and West Ham teams
AEK Athens: Stankovic, Rota, Vida, Moukoudi, Hajsafi, Szymanski, Amrabat, Mantalos, Pineda, Gacinovic, Zuber. Subs: Mohammadi, Araujo, Ponce, Eliasson, Mitoglou, Sidibe,
Athanasiadis, Ginis, Pizarro.
Brighton: Verbruggen, Hinshelwood, Igor, Dunk, Veltman, Gross, Gilmour, Adingra, Ferguson, Mitoma, Joao Pedro. Subs: Milner, Dahoud, Baleba, Steele, McGill, Buonanotte, Jackson, Duffus, Hinchy, Chouchane, Kavanagh.
Referee: Sandro Scharer (Switzerland)
West Ham: Fabianski; Johnson, Mavropanos, Aguerd, Cresswell; Soucek, Ward-Prowse, Fornals; Benrahma, Mubama, Paqueta. Subs: Areola, Anang, Zouma, Ings, Cornet, Ogbonna, Kehrer, Coventry, Emerson, Chesters, Scarles, Orford
Preamble
Brighton can carve this season into club mythology by winning in Athens to book a spot in the knockout stages. The same goes for West Ham in Serbia. Both teams may have to look to other results to avoid an extra knockout round in February. It’s a night each of the British teams – Liverpool and Rangers play later – can secure qualification. The same goes for Aston Villa in the Europa Conference.
But, for the early shift, here’s the Europa League games to look out for.
Group A
Backa Topola v. West Ham (KO 5.45)
Freiburg v. Olympiacos (KO 5.45)
Group B
AEK Athens v. Brighton (KO 5.45)
Group C
Sparta Prague v. Real Betis (KO 5.45)
Group D
Atalanta v. Sporting (KO 5.45)
Sturm Graz v. Rakow Czestochowa (KO 5.45)
Group F
Maccabi Haifa v. Rennes (KO 5.45)
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