How did Premier League sides fare in the Europa and Conference League?
By Tom Vinall
On Thursday evening, three Premier League sides were in action in Europe. Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United were in Europa League action, away to Ferencvaros and FC Porto respectively, meanwhile Chelsea had a home tie against Gent in the Conference League.
How did Premier League sides fare in the Europa and Conference League?
Spurs were in action in one of the nine earlier kick offs, playing against Hungarian league leaders Ferencvaros in a 17:45 BST kick off. Ange Postecoglu made a number of changes for this one, with James Maddison, Dominic Solanke, Micky Van De Ven, Brennan Johnson, and Dejan Kulusevski amongst the subs, whilst Destiny Udogie and Heung Min-Son were not passed fit to play.
After a tough opening, where their hosts had the ball in the back of the net, only to be controversially ruled out for offside - Spurs had a goal midway through the first half. A bouncing ball in the box fell to Lucas Bergvall before inadvertendly falling to Pape Matar Sarr inside the box, who cooly finshed into the bottom corner.
READ MORE: How did Premier League sides fare in the Champions League?
Spurs had to weather another second half storm, and Ange responded by introducing Maddison, Solanke, Johnson and Kulusevski throughout the half. The changes paid off, as Johnson made it five goals in five games with a left-footed finish off the post with fewer than 10 minutes left.
Their was time for a goal from their hosts, but Spurs held onto make it two wins from two in Europe and five wins in a row in all competitions.
Manchester United's game against FC Porto had everything. United had found themselves two goals up midway through the first half, after two goalkeeping howlers from Diogo Costa allowed Marcus Rashford and Rasmus Hojlund to score. It would be 2-2 by half-time, however, after goals from Pepe and Samuel Omorodion.
Omorodion got his second five minutes into the second half, superbly attacking a low cross towards the near post. Bruno Fernandes received his second red card in as many games, after picking up two yellow cards with around 10 minutes left. United would still get an equaliser, after substitute Harry Maguire nodded in a corner in injury time.
It was a much less stressful game for Chelsea in their Conference League debut, dispatching Gent 4-2 with goals from Renato Veiga, Pedro Neto, Christopher Nkunku, and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.
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