Villa win in Europa League as Forest and Scottish clubs lose

Aston Villa won 2-0 at Feyenoord in the Europa League on Thursday but Nottingham Forest lost at home to Danish side Midtjylland as Rangers and Celtic also suffered defeats.

Emi Buendia curled in from 20 yards and John McGinn swept in a second goal in Rotterdam as Villa made a winning return to the scene of their 1982 European Cup triumph.

Villa failed to win any of their first six games of the season but Unai Emery’s side have since reeled off three successive victories and are among seven teams on a maximum six points in the Europa League.

Marco Bizot produced some key saves in the Villa goal after being thrust into the line-up as a late replacement for Emiliano Martinez, who reportedly injured his calf.

“It has been difficult in the beginning of the season but we never lost the faith and hope,” Bizot told TNT Sports.

“We still have the spirit, even when it was not that great at the beginning. Now, hopefully, we can keep this up.”

Forest paid the price for sloppy defending at set-pieces as Midtjylland won 3-2 at the City Ground to leave new manager Ange Postecoglou still searching for his first win.

Defenders Ousmane Diao and Mads Bech scored either side of Dan Ndoye’s goal as Midtjylland punished Forest for failing to deal with a free-kick and a corner.

Valdemar Andreasen netted the decisive goal two minutes from time as Chris Wood pulled one back for Forest from the spot in stoppage time.

“Really disappointing. Just really, really poor goals we conceded in the first half,” said Postecoglou.

“Story of our last few games - key moments let us down.”

Forest are playing in Europe for the first time in 30 years and have just one point so far after a 2-2 draw away to Real Betis in their opening fixture.

Rangers lose again: Rangers’ miserable start to the season under beleaguered manager Russell Martin continued as they lost 2-1 away to Austrian side Sturm Graz.

Tomi Horvat gave the hosts an early lead and Otar Kiteishvili doubled it as Rangers completely switched off and conceded from a free-kick.

Djeidi Gassama halved the deficit but it was another dismal night for Rangers, who remain without a point in Europe.

“You can’t start that poorly,” said Martin. “The mentality is the problem.”

Their humiliating 9-1 aggregate thrashing in Champions League qualifying by Club Brugge was followed by a tame 1-0 home loss to Genk in their Europa League opener.

Rangers are also struggling badly in Scotland where they are eighth in the 12-team table.

“It’s an interesting time (to be Rangers manager), it’s a frustrating time,” added Martin.

Celtic slumped to a 2-0 loss at home to Braga and are just a point better off than their Glasgow rivals in the Europa League.

The Scottish champions fell behind at Parkhead to a dipping long-range strike from Ricardo Horta that beat goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel far too easily.

Kelechi Iheanacho had an equaliser controversially ruled out early in the second half after a VAR review for a supposed handball.

But Celtic’s hopes of salvaging a result were dashed when substitute Gabri Martinez scored a scrappy late second goal for the Portuguese visitors.

Celtic have failed to score in five of their 12 games in all competitions this season, which included a pair of goalless draws against Kairat Almaty in the Champions League play-offs.

The Kazakh side won that tie on penalties to condemn Celtic to a place in the Europa League.

“Whatever it is, I need to find the solution to it,” said Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers.

“There’s been too many games now where we haven’t scored for a team that, last season, scored the most goals in the last 54 years in the club’s history.

“It’s my responsibility to find the solutions to that.”

Porto, Lyon and Lille all won to maintain their perfect starts, while Basel and Fenerbahce bounced back from opening losses.

Last season’s UEFA Conference League runners-up Betis won 2-0 away to Ludogorets.

Palace beat Kyiv: Crystal Palace launched their first full venture into European football with a 2-0 win over Dynamo Kyiv in Poland on Thursday in the UEFA Conference League.

Colombian wing-back Daniel Munoz’s brilliant towering header in the first half put Palace ahead in Lublin, where Dynamo are playing their home games in Europe this season because of the war in Ukraine.

Eddie Nketiah grabbed a second just before the hour, stabbing in another cross from the excellent Yeremy Pino, as Palace set a new club record run of 19 matches unbeaten.

Borna Sosa though picked up two yellow cards in quick succession to leave Palace with 10 men for the final 15 minutes.

Agence France-Presse