Football
ESPN staff 7y

Man United concede late equaliser in draw at Anderlecht; Lyon rally to win

Manchester United scored an important away goal but were held to a disappointing 1-1 draw after conceding late against Anderlecht in their Europa League quarterfinal first leg on Thursday. 

United enjoyed the better of the first half and took a deserved 36th-minute lead when Henrikh Mkhitaryan finished from a tight angle after Jesse Lingard's shot was parried.

After starting the second half on the back foot, United almost doubled their lead on 55 minutes when Mkhitaryan went close from Matteo Darmian's cross after good work from Paul Pogba.

But the late drama came at the other end as Leander Dendoncker scored a header with only four minutes left of normal time to give Anderlecht hope heading into the second leg at Old Trafford next week.

In Thursday's other quarterfinals, Lyon scored two late goals to turn around their first leg against Besiktas, winning 2-1 in a game that was delayed 45 minutes by disturbances in the crowd.

The Turkish side led 1-0 at half-time following a quickly taken free kick on the quarter-hour mark, Anderson Talisca catching the hosts off guard to slip in a pass for Ryan Babel.

But Lyon had seemingly endless chances to level the score and finally found the equaliser in the 83rd minute when a long free kick came off Talisca and fell nicely for Corentin Tolisso to tap home.

And less than two minutes later, Lyon took advantage of disastrous defending to take the lead. Atiba Hutchinson played an ill-advised pass into his keeper Fabricio, who was immediately under pressure and gave the ball away for Jeremy Morel to net the winner.

Celta Vigo quickly erased an early deficit and held on to win their home leg against Genk 3-2.

Jean-Paul Boetius headed in a fine cross from Leandro Trossard to put the Belgian side ahead after 10 minutes, but Sione Pisto -- who scored twice for Midtjylland against Man United in the Europa League last year -- found the equaliser five minutes later.

Two minutes after that, Iago Aspas intecepted a pass, dribbled to the top of the box, and fired a low shot inside the far post to put Celta ahead.

It was 3-1 in the 38th minute when John Guidetti took a touch in the box and placed his low shot inside the near post.

Genk got an important goal back midway through the second half, the ball falling for Thomas Buffel, who saw his first shot saved before slamming home the rebound.

Davy Klaassen scored twice to hand Ajax a 2-0 advantage over Bundesliga side Schalke.

Amin Younes drew a penalty from Alessandro Schopf after a powerful run into the box, and Klaassen drove home the penalty to put the hosts ahead in the 23rd minute.

Klaassen got his second seven minutes after half-time with a fine volley from a Justin Kluivert cross that was slightly behind him.

^ Back to Top ^