ROTTERDAM--Feyenoord Rotterdam have their first win in the Europa League after a 3-1 victory over CSKA Moscow in De Kuip stadium.
After only taking one point from their opening two games, Feyenoord needed a victory on Thursday to give themselves the best chance of progressing to the knockout rounds. Manager Dick Advocaat decided to start with Ridgeciano Haps as left striker.
Former SC Heerenveen attacker Chidera Ejuke caused danger for CSKA, but the best chances of the first-half fell to Feyenoord. However, Orkun Kökcü, Haps, and Steven Berghuis could not break the deadlock.
Moscow started the second half strongly but it was Feyenoord that took the lead in the 63rd minute. Haps tapped in a Berghuis cross from close range. That lead was doubled eight minutes later when Kökcü fired an excellent strike into the far corner from outside the box. A minute later, Feyenoord added a third as Lutsharel Geetruida finished off a Bryan Linssen cross.
Feyenoord then played with confidence and Linssen thought he had added a fourth but the goal was disallowed for offside. Even a Marcos Senesi own-goal before the end could not dampen an excellent night for Feyenoord.
The victory means Feyenoord are now on four points and sit third in the group. Dinamo Zagreb top the group with five points after they defeated Wolfsberger 1-0.
AZ
AZ Alkmaar battled but fell to a 1-0 loss away to Real Sociedad in the Europa League. AZ went into the game with six points after wins against HNK Rijeka and Napoli. However, there was no real chance of making it three on the bounce as Real Sociedad completely dominated from the start.
The Spanish home side had great chances in the first-half, but Marco Bizot kept a clean sheet going into the break. Portu and David Silva were among those that could not break the deadlock for Real Sociedad.
Bizot made two great saves early in the second half but was eventually beaten by Portu in the 58th minute. Alexander Isak immediately had the chance to make it 2-0 but Bizot denied the striker.
Before the end, AZ did get one chance to equalise but substitute Zakaria Aboukhlal fired over the bar. AZ narrowly lost but remain on six points and a good position in the group.
PSV
PSV Eindhoven conceded four goals in 20 minutes as they fell to a 4-1 loss at PAOK Salonika in the Europa League.
After recovering from coronavirus, Pablo Rosario was straight back into the PSV midfield, while Ryan Thomas was selected at right-back.
PSV made a strong start and eventually that led to the lead in the 20th minute. A clever backheel by Mohamed Ihattaren played Donyell Malen into the box and he was taken down. Eran Zahavi scored the resulting penalty.
Five minutes before half-time, Zahavi should have made it 2-0 but he could not find the net when put through one-on-one with the PAOK goalkeeper. Malen then sent a header over the bar.
Two minutes into the second half, PAOK levelled when a free-kick was only cleared to the edge of the box and Stefan Schwab fired low past Yvon Mvogo.
In the 55th minute, the Greek side took the lead as Thomas was robbed of the ball and Zivkovic fired past Mvogo. Roger Schmidt immediately took off Thomas and Ihattaren for Mauro Junior and Noni Madueke.
However, the PSV substitutes were only on the pitch for seconds before PAOK made it 3-1. Again the PSV defence totally stood off and Christos Tzolis was allowed time to fire past Mvogo. Zivkovic then quickly added a fourth after a swift counter-attack to compound a miserable 20 minutes for PSV. From that point the game was done and PSV slumped to their second defeat in three group games.
