Everton stays perfect in Europa League, Fulham also wins
By Raf Casert, APThursday, October 1, 2009
Everton stays perfect in Europa League
BRUSSELS — Everton maintained its perfect record with a come-from-behind 2-1 win over Bate Borisov in Europa League on Thursday.
Dmitri Likhtarovich put the home side ahead, but Everton tied it with a header by Belgian midfielder Marouane Fellaini in the 68th minute and Australian forward Tim Cahill lobbed the ball over Bate goalkeeper Sergei Veremko 11 minutes later.
American Tim Howard was in goal for Everton.
AEK Athens beat Benfica 1-0. Everton is six points ahead of AEK and Benfica in Group I.
Also, Fulham took the lead in Group E with four points after a 1-0 win over Basel. American Clint Dempsey played the entire match for Fulham. Roma secured its first points of the season with a 2-0 win over CSKA Sofia. Basel and Roma both have three points and CSKA has one.
Last season’s UEFA Cup champion Shakhtar Donetsk beat Partizan Belgrade 4-1.
The result gave Shakhtar sole possession of the lead in Group J after Toulouse was held to a 2-2 draw at home by Club Brugge.
In Group A, Anderlecht fought back with 10 men to earn a 1-1 draw with Ajax after defender Jelle Van Damme was sent off for pushing with 10 minutes to go.
In the other group game, Dinamo Zagreb bounced back from a loss to Anderlecht at home with a 3-0 victory over Timisoara.
Anderlecht tops the group with four points, one ahead of Dinamo.
Spain and Valencia forward David Villa earned a penalty and then scored the winner from the spot in the 82nd minute against Italy’s Genoa. It was Villa’s seventh goal of the campaign.
Hamburg earned its first points in Group C with a 4-2 win over Hapoel Tel Aviv, while leader Rapid Vienna and Celtic had a 1-1 draw. Vienna has four points, one more than Hamburg and Tel Aviv.
Panathinaikos beat Dynamo Bucharest 1-0 in Romania while Sturm Graz had a 1-1 draw with Galatasaray. The Turkish team leads group F with four points, one ahead of Panathinaikos and Bucharest.
The top two from each of the 12 groups advance into the knockout round where they will be joined by the 10 losing sides from the Champions League playoff round.
