Last season’s UEFA Cup champions Shakhtar Donetsk beat Partizan Belgrade 4-1 on Thursday to take sole possession of the lead of Europa League Group J after Toulouse were held to a 2-2 draw at home by Club Brugge.
Shakhtar took the lead through an own goal by Marko Lomic mid-way through the first half and made sure of victory with goals by Luiz Adriano, Jadson and Yaroslav Rakitskiy before Adem Ljajic scored a late consolation goal for Partizan.
It left the Ukrainians with a maximum six points, ahead of Toulouse with four, Brugge with one, while Partizan have none.
PHOTO: AFP
Croatian forward Ivan Perisic headed an equalizer four minutes into injury time to give Brugge their first point. Joseph Akpala broke the deadlock in the 52nd minute with a right-footed strike but Toulouse leveled two minutes later when defender Moussa Sissoko slotted home with a low shot.
The French club then looked to have secured all three points when France striker Andre-Pierre Gignac struck six minutes from time before Perisic’s late strike.
In Group A, Anderlecht fought back with 10 men to earn 1-1 draw with Ajax after defender Jelle Van Damme was sent off for pushing with 10 minutes to go.
Despite being down to 10 men, the Belgians continued to attack and Jonathan Legaer tapped in a rebound in the 85th to cancel out Dennis Rommedahl’s strike.
In the other group game, Dinamo Zagreb beat Timisoara 3-0.
Everton maintained their perfect record with a 2-1 win over Bate Borisov in Group I.
Dmitri Likhtarovich put the home side ahead, but Everton struck back with a header by Marouane Fellaini in the 68th minute before Tim Cahill lobbed the ball over Bate ’keeper Sergei Veremko 11 minutes later. In the other game, AEK Athens beat Benfica 1-0.
In other games it was:
• Valencia 3, Genoa 2
• Slavia Prague 1, Lille 5
• Hamburg 4, Hapoel Tel Aviv 2
• Celtic 1, Rapid Vienna 1
• Sporting 1, Hertha Berlin 0
• Ventspils 0, Heerenveen 0
• Roma 2, CSKA Sofia 0
• Fulham 1, Basel 0
• D Bucharest 0, Panathinaikos 1
• Sturm Graz 1 Galatasaray 1
• FC Salzburg 2, Villarreal 0
• Lazio 4, Levski Sofia 0
• Werder Bremen 3, Bilbao 1
• Austria Vienna 1 CD Nacional 1
• Twente 0, Steaua Bucharest 0
• Sheriff Tiraspol 0 Fenerbahce 1
• FC Copenhagen 1, Sparta Prague 0
• PSV Eindhoven 1, CFR Cluj 0
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