In a meeting on Thursday of two former European champions in crisis, Ajax and Olympique de Marseille drew 3-3 in “a crazy game,” while Liverpool and West Ham United were also winners in the opening round of UEFA Europa League group games.
Liverpool fell behind for the fourth time in five matches this season, but fought back to beat LASK 3-1 in Linz, Austria, to make Juergen Klopp the first coach to win 50 European games at the Merseyside club.
West Ham, who won the UEFA Europa Conference League last season, also hit back to beat visiting Serbian club TSC Backa Topola 3-1.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Brighton & Hove Albion, making their European debut in the Europa League, fell behind early to AEK Athens and although they equalized twice, lost 3-2.
In Amsterdam, Ajax, who have won just two games all season and sit 12th in the Dutch league met Marseille who are third in Ligue 1.
After a meeting between Marseille fan representatives and the club’s hierarchy reportedly turned nasty, coach Marcelino, only appointed in June, resigned on Tuesday after just seven games in charge.
Both teams tore into the game. Ajax carved open the visiting defense in the first 20 minutes and took a two-goal lead with goals by Carlos Forbs and Steven Berghuis.
“I knew the players would get back into the game and we’d score the goal that would set us free. It was a crazy game, but I also think we were in control,” interim Marseille coach Jacques Abardonado said.
Jonathan Clauss and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang hit back before halftime.
As both sides peppered the opposing goal, Kenneth Taylor restored the hosts’ edge, but Aubameyang leveled again with 12 minutes left.
Marseille finished with 25 attempts on goal.
“It could have been 6-6,” Ajax coach Maurice Steijn said. “I don’t want to talk about a crisis, I saw a great match in a full stadium.”
In Brighton, England, Djibril Sidibe put AEK ahead with a bullet header.
Brighton twice leveled with Joao Pedro penalties. AEK twice regained the lead when sudden deflections in the rain opened up chances. Mijat Gacinovic buried one and Ezequiel Ponce tucked home the winner.
“We can improve, but it’s difficult to accept this defeat,” Brighton coach Roberto de Zerbi said. “I can’t be happy when we win at Old Trafford and sad today with a good performance. We didn’t show as much experience as AEK Athens.”
Liverpool, playing in the Europa League for the first time since finishing runners-up in 2015-2016, changed their entire starting 11 away to LASK.
They fell behind to a 14th-minute rocket from Florian Flecker.
Darwin Nunez leveled with a 55th-minute penalty after Luis Diaz was brought down.
After 61 minutes, Klopp started to replace teenagers with regular starters. Within two minutes they were ahead when Ryan Gravenberch, on his full debut, burst down the right and crossed low for Diaz to score from close range.
Two minutes from the end, Mohamed Salah, a second-half replacement, poked home a third.
“I’m really, really happy, because I said before I knew it would be difficult and it was difficult,” Klopp said. “A well-deserved win in the end, and that’s it.”
Elsewhere, Romelu Lukaku earned last year’s beaten finalists AS Roma a 2-1 victory at Sheriff in Moldova.
Abdallah Sima scored the only goal as Rangers beat Real Betis Balompie1-0 in Glasgow.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen crushed Sweden’s BK Hacken 4-0, Stade Rennais cruised past Maccabi Haifa 3-0 in France, while Villarreal lost 2-0 to Panathinakos in Greece.
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