FOOTBALL NEWS FROM EUROPA LEAGUE
Bony hits brace as Swansea cruise
New boy Wilfried Bony marked his debut with a second-half double as Swansea City produced a fine return to European competition after a 22-year absence with a 4-0 thrashing of Malmo.
Bony fired home a quickfire brace in the 55th and 59th minute after Michu had given the Swans a 37th-minute lead in their Europa League third qualifying round first-leg clash.
It was a dream start for Bony, a £12 million summer signing from Vitesse Arnhem, who glanced home his opener from a Wayne Routledge cross then bundled in a rebound after Michu's effort struck the post.
Earlier the Spaniard - scorer of 22 goals last season - had got the Swans on their way when he slid the ball past advancing Malmo keeper Johan Dahlin. It was quite a statement from Michael Laudrup's men against the experienced Allsvenskan line-up, who had hit headlines last week with a 7-0 second-leg win away to Scottish side Hibernian.
And next week's second leg in Sweden was rendered a virtual formality when Swansea completed the scoring four minutes from time, Alejandro Pozuelo finishing off a flowing move involving impressive new boy Jonjo Shelvey.
Fresh from their excellent away win over fancied Norwegians Rosenborg in the previous round, St Johnstone did it again with a 1-0 win over Belarusian side Minsk in Grodno. Steven MacLean scored the only goal of the game in the 69th minute after a fine performance from the visitors, for whom Nigel Hasselbaink missed a fine chance to open the scoring earlier.
MacLean collected a pass from Liam Caddis and shot under Minsk keeper Vladimir Bushma to grab the opener and spark a furious spell of late pressure from the
home side, with Saints keeper Alan Mannus standing firm. #
But Motherwell were left disappointed by a 2-0 defeat to Kuban Krasnodar at Fir Park. Despite plenty of possession the hosts could not make a breakthrough and were punished by Kuban's Bulgarian striker Ivelin Popov.
Popov opened the scoring on 52 minutes when he finished off a pass from Ibrahima Balde, and the pair repeated the feat with 12 minutes to go as Popov netted his second. Motherwell almost gave themselves a glimmer of hope in injury time but striker John Sutton headed against the post from a Zaine Francis-Angol cross.
Elsewhere in first leg matches, Udinese eased to a 3-1 win over Siroki Brijeg in Bosnia and French Ligue 1 side St Etienne had an equally easy night as they beat Romania's Milsami-Ursidos 3-0.
But Bundesliga Stuttgart could only draw 1-1 with Botev Plovdiv in Bulgaria and there was a surprise for Belgium's former European finalists Club Brugge, who lost 1-0 in Poland to Slask Wroclaw.
Aleksey Antonov's late penalty sealed a miserable night for former European champions Red Star Belgrade as they slumped to defeat in Odessa. Slavia Stojanovic's men were beaten 3-1 by Chornomorets, for whom Sito Rieira and Franck Dja-Djedje scored first-half goals and added their third from the spot after Vukan Savicevic had briefly reduced the deficit.
Brazilian striker Paulo Henrique scored the only goal of the game as Trabzonspor earned a hard-fought 1-0 first-leg win at Dinamo Minsk, despite seeing Gustavo Colman sent off in injury time.
Eredivisie side Vitesse Arnhem were pegged back 1-1 by Petrolul Ploiesti in Romania, despite taking a second-half lead through a Jonathan Reis penalty. Frank van der Struijk levelled with an own goal six minutes from time.
Rubin Kazan took a narrow first-leg lead home to Russia after beating Randers 2-1 in Denmark. Dmitri Torbinski and Salomon Rondon scored in the first half for the visitors, before Jonas Borring reduced the deficit.
Maccabi Haifa were held to a goalless draw by Ventspils in Latvia, while Polish side Lech Poznan fell to a surprise 1-0 defeat to Zalgiris in Lithuania, with Mantas Kuklys scoring the only goal.
Tweet
New boy Wilfried Bony marked his debut with a second-half double as Swansea City produced a fine return to European competition after a 22-year absence with a 4-0 thrashing of Malmo.Bony fired home a quickfire brace in the 55th and 59th minute after Michu had given the Swans a 37th-minute lead in their Europa League third qualifying round first-leg clash.
It was a dream start for Bony, a £12 million summer signing from Vitesse Arnhem, who glanced home his opener from a Wayne Routledge cross then bundled in a rebound after Michu's effort struck the post.
Earlier the Spaniard - scorer of 22 goals last season - had got the Swans on their way when he slid the ball past advancing Malmo keeper Johan Dahlin. It was quite a statement from Michael Laudrup's men against the experienced Allsvenskan line-up, who had hit headlines last week with a 7-0 second-leg win away to Scottish side Hibernian.
And next week's second leg in Sweden was rendered a virtual formality when Swansea completed the scoring four minutes from time, Alejandro Pozuelo finishing off a flowing move involving impressive new boy Jonjo Shelvey.
Fresh from their excellent away win over fancied Norwegians Rosenborg in the previous round, St Johnstone did it again with a 1-0 win over Belarusian side Minsk in Grodno. Steven MacLean scored the only goal of the game in the 69th minute after a fine performance from the visitors, for whom Nigel Hasselbaink missed a fine chance to open the scoring earlier.
MacLean collected a pass from Liam Caddis and shot under Minsk keeper Vladimir Bushma to grab the opener and spark a furious spell of late pressure from the
home side, with Saints keeper Alan Mannus standing firm. #
But Motherwell were left disappointed by a 2-0 defeat to Kuban Krasnodar at Fir Park. Despite plenty of possession the hosts could not make a breakthrough and were punished by Kuban's Bulgarian striker Ivelin Popov.
Popov opened the scoring on 52 minutes when he finished off a pass from Ibrahima Balde, and the pair repeated the feat with 12 minutes to go as Popov netted his second. Motherwell almost gave themselves a glimmer of hope in injury time but striker John Sutton headed against the post from a Zaine Francis-Angol cross.
Elsewhere in first leg matches, Udinese eased to a 3-1 win over Siroki Brijeg in Bosnia and French Ligue 1 side St Etienne had an equally easy night as they beat Romania's Milsami-Ursidos 3-0.
But Bundesliga Stuttgart could only draw 1-1 with Botev Plovdiv in Bulgaria and there was a surprise for Belgium's former European finalists Club Brugge, who lost 1-0 in Poland to Slask Wroclaw.
Aleksey Antonov's late penalty sealed a miserable night for former European champions Red Star Belgrade as they slumped to defeat in Odessa. Slavia Stojanovic's men were beaten 3-1 by Chornomorets, for whom Sito Rieira and Franck Dja-Djedje scored first-half goals and added their third from the spot after Vukan Savicevic had briefly reduced the deficit.
Brazilian striker Paulo Henrique scored the only goal of the game as Trabzonspor earned a hard-fought 1-0 first-leg win at Dinamo Minsk, despite seeing Gustavo Colman sent off in injury time.
Eredivisie side Vitesse Arnhem were pegged back 1-1 by Petrolul Ploiesti in Romania, despite taking a second-half lead through a Jonathan Reis penalty. Frank van der Struijk levelled with an own goal six minutes from time.
Rubin Kazan took a narrow first-leg lead home to Russia after beating Randers 2-1 in Denmark. Dmitri Torbinski and Salomon Rondon scored in the first half for the visitors, before Jonas Borring reduced the deficit.
Maccabi Haifa were held to a goalless draw by Ventspils in Latvia, while Polish side Lech Poznan fell to a surprise 1-0 defeat to Zalgiris in Lithuania, with Mantas Kuklys scoring the only goal.