London, Oct 23 (AP):
Gareth Bale had a quiet first start for Tottenham since returning to the London club, while Carlos Vinicius made a more impressive debut by setting up two goals in a 3-0 win over LASK in the Europa League.
North London rival Arsenal on Thursday opened its fourth straight Europa League campaign with a 2-1 come-from-behind win at Rapid Vienna in an opening round of games affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
On a good night for Premier League clubs, Leicester earned a comfortable 3-0 home win over Zorya Luhansk.
AC Milan earned a 3-1 away win at Celtic, while Roma came from a goal down to win 2-1 at Young Boys as did Granada to upset PSV Eindhoven away.
Rangers’ Kemar Roofe scored the goal of the night in a 2-0 victory at Standard Liege, dribbling his way through three opponents inside his own half and then launching a shot from the halfway line that caught the goalkeeper off guard and looped into the net. Dutch team AZ Alkmaar overcame a slew of coronavirus cases to upset Napoli 1-0.
BALE IS BACK
After coming on as a substitute against West Ham for his first appearance since returning to Tottenham, Bale played more than an hour against in the Group J match against Austria’s LASK, and had a hand in Tottenham’s second goal.
The forward, who is on loan from Real Madrid, collected a pass from Erik Lamela in the 27th and sent a low cross into the area from the right that defender Andr s Andrade deflected into his own.
Earlier, Lucas Moura finished off another free-flowing move to open the scoring after being set up by Vinicius. The Brazilian, who is on loan from Benfica, created several other chances before teeing up substitute Son Heung- min to wrap up the win six minutes from time.
Tottenham manager Jose Mourinho is looking to win the competition for a third time with a third club, having won it with Porto and Manchester United.
In the other group game, Ludogorets lost 2-1 at home to Royal Antwerp.
SUBSTITUTES COMPLETE COMEBACK
Arsenal went behind when goalkeeper Bernd Leno played a poor pass that fell to Rapid forward Taxiarchis Fountas, who slotted in a low shot from a tough angle in the 51st minute.
Manager Mikel Arteta sent on Pierre Emerick Aubameyang and H ctor Beller n in the 61st, and the substitutes helped spark the comeback.
After David Luiz headed in a free kick from Nicolas P p to level the score, Mohamed Elneny freed Beller n down the right to cross for Aubameyang to complete the comeback from close range for Arsenal, which won its group in its previous three campaigns in the second-tier European competition.
In the other Group B game, Molde also came from behind to win 2-1 at Dundalk.
AGAINST ALL ODDS
AZ Alkmaar flew into Naples with 13 players sidelined with coronavirus infections.
Napoli, meanwhile, was coming off a 4-1 win over high-scoring Atalanta 4-1 this past weekend. But the Dutch staved off the hosts’ pressure before Dani de Wit scored the winner in the 57th.
Real Sociedad won 1-0 at Rijeka the other Group F game.
OTHER GROUPS
With Roma resting striker Edin D eko, Bruno Peres and Marash Kumbulla led the rally with the second-half goals for the Italian side.
Jean Pierre Nsame had given Young Boys the lead by converting a penalty kick in the 14th.
It was the first home loss for Young Boys to an Italian opponent in European competitions after beating Udinese, Napoli and Juventus.
