Everton and Lyon come from behind, Bremen and Hamburg win

HAMBURG - French club Lille and Everton came from behind to register important victories in the Europa League - on a night on which Bundesliga sides SV Hamburg and Werder Bremen also won.

Lille went behind in their Group B match at Slavia Prague in the first half but scored five goals after the break to register a 5-1 win, while Valencia needed a late David Villa goal to secure a 3-2 victory against Genoa in the other group game ThursdaY.

Everton fell behind in Borisov in the 16th minute when Belarussian international Dmitriy Likhtarovich opened the scoring for BATE Borisov.

Marouane Fellaini found an equaliser in the 68th minute before Australian international Tim Cahill scored the 2-1 winner for the visitors nine minutes later.

The other game in Group I saw AEK Athens beat Benfica Lisbon 1-0.

Bundesliga leaders SV Hamburg had an ideal start against Hapoel Tel Aviv, scoring twice in the opening 12 minutes through Marcus Berg. Itay Shechter pulled one back for the Israelis in the 37th minute, but just three minutes later Eljero Elia ensured a two-goal half-time lead.

After the break Samuel Yeboah scored for the visitors to give them some hope again, but after captain Valeed Badeer was sent off in the 65th minute, the Bundesliga side proved too strong and Ze Roberto’s goal in the 78th minute ensured a comfortable 4-2 win for Hamburg.

The other game in the Group C saw Celtic play to a 1-1 draw with Rapid Vienna.

In Bremen Aaron Hunt and Brazilian defender Naldo gave the home side a two-goal half-time lead against Spanish visitors Athletic Bilbao, but then had Peter Niemeyer sent off for a second bookable offence on the hour.

The substitute had come on just four minutes earlier.

Bilbao managed to claw their way back into the game and scored through Fernando Llorente in injury time.

Any hopes they had of securing an unlikely draw from the match went up in smoke four minutes into injury time though when Bremen were awarded a penalty, which Torsten Frings converted to give Bremen a 3-1 victory.

The other Group L game saw Austria Vienna score a late equalizer at home against Nacional Funchal for a 1-1.

Ajax Amsterdam drew 1-1 at Anderlecht in their Group A game, while Dinamo Zagreb secured a 3-0 victory at Timisoara in the other group match.

Troubled Bundesliga side Hertha Berlin’s woes continued in Group D, as they slumped to a 1-0 defeat at Sporting Lisbon, giving new coach Karsten Heine no luck in his first match in charge.

Also in Group D Ventspils played to a goalless draw with Dutch club SC Heerenveen.

Danny Murphy scored in the 57th minute to give Fulham a 1-0 victory against Basel in a Group E game, where AS Roma beat CSKA Sofia in the other match.

In Group F Panathinaikos won 1-0 at Dinamo Bucharest, while Galatasary drew 1-1 at home with Austrian club Sturm Graz.

There was also no joy for Spanish club Villarreal, who slumped to a 2-0 defeat at Red Bull Salzburg in a Group G game, with Lazio Rome securing a 4-0 hammering of Levski Sofia in Bulgaria in the other group game.

In Group H, Fenerbahce Istanbul got their points tally off the mark with a 1-0 victory at Sheriff Tiraspol, while Twente Enschede and Steaua Bucharest drew 0-0.

French club Toulouse managed a 2-2 draw at home against Club Brugge, while Shakhtar Donetsk, who won the final edition of the predecessor of the Europa League, the UEFA Cup, trounced Partizan Belgrade 4-1 in Group J.

Group K saw both home sides registering 1-0 victories, with FC Copenhagen beating Sparta Prague and PSV Eindhoven getting the better of CFR Cluj.