Uefa Conference League league phase matchday three results on Thursday:
AEK Athens 1 Shamrock Rovers 1
AEK Larnaca 0 Aberdeen 0
Celje 2 Legia Warsaw 1
KuPS 3 Slovan Bratislava 1
Mainz 2 Fiorentina 1
Noah 1 Sigma Olomouc 2
Samsunspor 3 Hamrun Spartans 0
Shakhtar Donetsk 2 Breidablik 0
Sparta Prague 0 Rakow Czestochowa 0
Crystal Palace 3 AZ Alkmaar 1
Dynamo Kyiv 6 Zrinjski 0
Hacken 1 Strasbourg 2
Lausanne 1 Omonia Nicosia 1
Lincoln Red Imps 1 Rijeka 1
Rapid Vienna 0 Craiova 1
Rayo Vallecano 3 Lech Poznan 2
Shelbourne 0 Drita 1
Shkendija 1 Jagiellonia 1
NOTTINGHAM FOREST remain unbeaten away from home in the Europa League after they battled to a goalless draw with Sturm Graz at the Merkur Arena.
Sean Dyche also continued his undefeated start in Europe since he took over as Forest boss and ensured the Reds took a point back to England following their 2-0 victory over Porto last time out in the competition.
Forest spurned a golden opportunity to rubber-stamp their early dominance when Morgan Gibbs-White saw a first-half penalty saved by Oliver Christensen after Maurice Malone had a goal ruled out for offside.
The hosts grew into the contest and forced a couple of cagey saves from John Victor on his second start for the club.
The second half turned into a scrappy stop-start affair as both sides failed to register a shot on target after the interval, but Nicolas Dominguez was denied the winner in stoppage time by the crossbar as both sides took a share of the spoils.
Dyche made seven changes to the side that drew 2-2 with Manchester United on Saturday, while Neco Williams, Nicolo Savona, Gibbs-White and Nikola Milenkovic all kept their places in the team.
Arjan Malic brought down Williams on the left edge of the box, which handed Forest the first opportunity, Dominguez pulling it back to James McAtee, who dragged his first-touch effort just wide of a post.
Forest controlled the early proceedings in Austria and almost had the opener, but Ryan Yates saw a close-range header cleared off the line by Malic in the 17th minute.
Sturm Graz thought they took the lead before the half-hour mark with their first foray forward.
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Otar Kiteishvili’s run put the Forest defence on the back foot, and his strike was parried by Victor into the path of Malone, who tapped into an empty net but was marginally offside.
Forest were given a chance to open the scoring from the penalty spot after Williams struck the ball off the hand of Emanuel Aiwu.
Gibbs-White assumed the responsibility, but his spot-kick was stopped by Christensen, who went low to his left to keep out the golden chance.
The Austrian’s attacking moments came few and far between, but they looked dangerous when they did come forward, Tomi Horvat forcing Victor into parrying another effort.
19-year-old Zach Abbott was introduced by Dyche and looked lively, but neither side showed any sort of attacking urgency after the interval as the game ticked into its final quarter.
Dyche brought Gibbs-White off for defender Murillo with 13 minutes to play as Forest set their stall out for a point away in Europe.
Forest almost snatched victory at the end when Dominguez let rip with a firecracker outside the box, but he was denied by the crossbar.
Meanwhile, Crystal Palace got their debut European campaign back on track with a comfortable 3-1 win over AZ Alkmaar at Selhurst Park.
Victory was key for Oliver Glasner’s team if they were to keep on top of any ambition to bypass February’s Conference League play-off round, and it came with room to spare, Maxence Lacroix and Ismaila Sarr scoring in the first half to make up for Jean-Philippe Mateta’s missed penalty.
The game ought to have been over by half-time. Palace twice hit the goal frame while the visiting goalkeeper, Rome-Jayden Owusu-Oduro, was excellent, producing one particularly fine save from Sarr as well as keeping out Mateta from 12 yards.
The Eredivisie side were a pale impression of the one Louis van Gaal led to the title in 2009. Their manager, Maarten Martens, was a key member of that side, and he at least saw his team pull a goal back through captain Sven Mijnans early in the second half, albeit heavily deflected.
In response, Palace tore into Alkmaar again, Mateta teeing up Sarr for his second to put behind them the surprise defeat by AEK Larnaca and take charge of their European fate.
They had been on top throughout. Early on, Chris Richards headed a deep free-kick back across the goal towards Sarr, who took the ball on his chest and thudded a half-volley against a post.
The same player won Palace their penalty. Sarr was initially judged to have been offside before Owusu-Oduro brought him down. A VAR review indicated otherwise, but Mateta could not take advantage, giving the goalkeeper an easy save from the spot.
Owusu-Oduro then brilliantly kept out Sarr’s header, Alkmaar failed to clear, and Will Hughes lobbed the ball back against the crossbar, capping a wild two minutes from which the visitors somehow emerged still level.
In the 22nd minute, Lacroix finally stuck the ball away beautifully for Palace after Alkmaar had left it bouncing inside the box. Home fans’ joy at a first home goal in European competition proper was suspended for fully three minutes while video officials satisfied themselves that Mateta had not been offside in the build-up.
Dean Henderson, a first-half spectator, had stayed awake to push away Ibrahim Sadiq’s low drive from range then was up smartly to smother the rebound.
But it had been a thoroughly straightforward 45 minutes for Palace and it ended fairly with them two up, Sarr arriving at the right moment in the six-yard box to toe home Lacroix’s flick-on.
Palace gifted the away side a goal with a ham-fisted attempt to clear a ball into the box. It dropped to captain Mijnans, whose deflected shot beat Henderson.
The error would not prove costly, and within minutes the two-goal lead was restored, a lovely ball down the centre by Mateta raced onto and finished expertly into the corner by Sarr.
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Nottingham Forest held, Crystal Palace get European campaign back on track
Updated at 22.45
Uefa Conference League league phase matchday three results on Thursday:
NOTTINGHAM FOREST remain unbeaten away from home in the Europa League after they battled to a goalless draw with Sturm Graz at the Merkur Arena.
Sean Dyche also continued his undefeated start in Europe since he took over as Forest boss and ensured the Reds took a point back to England following their 2-0 victory over Porto last time out in the competition.
Forest spurned a golden opportunity to rubber-stamp their early dominance when Morgan Gibbs-White saw a first-half penalty saved by Oliver Christensen after Maurice Malone had a goal ruled out for offside.
The hosts grew into the contest and forced a couple of cagey saves from John Victor on his second start for the club.
The second half turned into a scrappy stop-start affair as both sides failed to register a shot on target after the interval, but Nicolas Dominguez was denied the winner in stoppage time by the crossbar as both sides took a share of the spoils.
Dyche made seven changes to the side that drew 2-2 with Manchester United on Saturday, while Neco Williams, Nicolo Savona, Gibbs-White and Nikola Milenkovic all kept their places in the team.
Arjan Malic brought down Williams on the left edge of the box, which handed Forest the first opportunity, Dominguez pulling it back to James McAtee, who dragged his first-touch effort just wide of a post.
Forest controlled the early proceedings in Austria and almost had the opener, but Ryan Yates saw a close-range header cleared off the line by Malic in the 17th minute.
Sturm Graz thought they took the lead before the half-hour mark with their first foray forward.
Otar Kiteishvili’s run put the Forest defence on the back foot, and his strike was parried by Victor into the path of Malone, who tapped into an empty net but was marginally offside.
Forest were given a chance to open the scoring from the penalty spot after Williams struck the ball off the hand of Emanuel Aiwu.
Gibbs-White assumed the responsibility, but his spot-kick was stopped by Christensen, who went low to his left to keep out the golden chance.
The Austrian’s attacking moments came few and far between, but they looked dangerous when they did come forward, Tomi Horvat forcing Victor into parrying another effort.
19-year-old Zach Abbott was introduced by Dyche and looked lively, but neither side showed any sort of attacking urgency after the interval as the game ticked into its final quarter.
Dyche brought Gibbs-White off for defender Murillo with 13 minutes to play as Forest set their stall out for a point away in Europe.
Forest almost snatched victory at the end when Dominguez let rip with a firecracker outside the box, but he was denied by the crossbar.
Meanwhile, Crystal Palace got their debut European campaign back on track with a comfortable 3-1 win over AZ Alkmaar at Selhurst Park.
Victory was key for Oliver Glasner’s team if they were to keep on top of any ambition to bypass February’s Conference League play-off round, and it came with room to spare, Maxence Lacroix and Ismaila Sarr scoring in the first half to make up for Jean-Philippe Mateta’s missed penalty.
The game ought to have been over by half-time. Palace twice hit the goal frame while the visiting goalkeeper, Rome-Jayden Owusu-Oduro, was excellent, producing one particularly fine save from Sarr as well as keeping out Mateta from 12 yards.
The Eredivisie side were a pale impression of the one Louis van Gaal led to the title in 2009. Their manager, Maarten Martens, was a key member of that side, and he at least saw his team pull a goal back through captain Sven Mijnans early in the second half, albeit heavily deflected.
In response, Palace tore into Alkmaar again, Mateta teeing up Sarr for his second to put behind them the surprise defeat by AEK Larnaca and take charge of their European fate.
They had been on top throughout. Early on, Chris Richards headed a deep free-kick back across the goal towards Sarr, who took the ball on his chest and thudded a half-volley against a post.
The same player won Palace their penalty. Sarr was initially judged to have been offside before Owusu-Oduro brought him down. A VAR review indicated otherwise, but Mateta could not take advantage, giving the goalkeeper an easy save from the spot.
Owusu-Oduro then brilliantly kept out Sarr’s header, Alkmaar failed to clear, and Will Hughes lobbed the ball back against the crossbar, capping a wild two minutes from which the visitors somehow emerged still level.
In the 22nd minute, Lacroix finally stuck the ball away beautifully for Palace after Alkmaar had left it bouncing inside the box. Home fans’ joy at a first home goal in European competition proper was suspended for fully three minutes while video officials satisfied themselves that Mateta had not been offside in the build-up.
Dean Henderson, a first-half spectator, had stayed awake to push away Ibrahim Sadiq’s low drive from range then was up smartly to smother the rebound.
But it had been a thoroughly straightforward 45 minutes for Palace and it ended fairly with them two up, Sarr arriving at the right moment in the six-yard box to toe home Lacroix’s flick-on.
Palace gifted the away side a goal with a ham-fisted attempt to clear a ball into the box. It dropped to captain Mijnans, whose deflected shot beat Henderson.
The error would not prove costly, and within minutes the two-goal lead was restored, a lovely ball down the centre by Mateta raced onto and finished expertly into the corner by Sarr.
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EPL Morgan Gibbs-White Premier League Soccer Stalemate Nottingham Forest Sturm Graz Wrap