Lyon beat Crystal Palace in Europa League; Armenian side that knocked out Riga loses to Polish club

French football club Olympique Lyonnais beat Premier League side Crystal Palace of London 3:2 (2:0) at home on Thursday. The match was played in the UEFA Europa League, the European club competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), in which teams compete in a league phase for places in the knockout rounds.

The Lyon match

The hosts built a 2:0 lead in the first half: Corentin Tolisso scored in the eighth minute, and Ernest Nuamah added a second in first-half stoppage time. Jeremy Pino pulled one back for Crystal Palace in the 50th minute. Lyon restored their two-goal margin in the 76th minute through Pavel Sulc (3:1). Daichi Kamada scored the visitors' second in the 81st minute, but they could not find an equaliser.

Other results

Spain's Celta Vigo led Juventus of Turin at home for 40 minutes but lost 1:2. Hugo Alvarez put the Spanish side ahead in the 18th minute, Nick Woltemade levelled in the 58th, and Randal Kolo Muani scored the winner in the second minute of stoppage time.

Armenian champions Ararat-Armenia of Yerevan, who beat Latvia's Riga 4:3 on aggregate in the first qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League, lost 1:3 away to Poland's Jagiellonia Bialystok. The Armenians went ahead in the 11th minute through Zidane Banjaqui, but goals from Kamil Jozwiak, Rodrigo Conceicao and Usman Sow gave the Polish side victory.

Germany's Bayer Leverkusen beat Lech Poznan 4:0 in Poland, and Italy's AC Milan won 4:0 away at Salzburg in Austria.

Competition format

The Europa League league phase features 36 teams, each playing eight matches against different opponents, facing two teams from each of four pots. The top eight sides go straight to the round of 16, teams placed 9th to 24th enter a knockout play-off round, and the rest are out of European competition for the season. This format is being used for the third season in a row. Last season Aston Villa of Birmingham won the tournament, beating Germany's Freiburg 3:0 in the final.