PARIS:
Bournemouth pulled off a sensational 3-0 home victory over 10-man AC Milan on Thursday to make it three wins from their opening three games in the Europa League.
Justin Kluivert and Marcus Tavernier converted first-half penalties to put Bournemouth firmly in control against AC Milan, one of Europe’s leading clubs.
Milan goalkeeper and skipper Mike Maignan was red carded early on for a foul on Tyler Adams and his side never fully recovered.
Amine Adli scored a sublime 84th free-kick to make it 3-0, the Premier League side having opened their inaugural Europa League campaign with victory at Real Sociedad followed by a 3-0 home win over Sturm Graz last week.
Bournemouth, who became the first English club since Sunderland in 1973/74 to win the first three European fixtures in their history, will now face Sparta Prague and Celta Vigo in November.
Bournemouth’s Premier League rivals Crystal Palace rebounded from a 5-0 weekend thrashing by Brighton to claim a 2-2 draw with Beskitas in Istanbul, while Scottish giants Celtic suffered a third successive defeat, going down 2-1 to Celta Vigo.
Bayer Leverkusen, however, also made it three straight wins with a Jonas Hofmann double earning a 2-0 away win at OFI Crete as both Juventus and Sunderland lost ground in Thursday’s third matchday.
The once mighty Hungarian side Ferencvaros kept pace with Leverkusen on nine points thumping Portuguese outfit Torreense 4-1, while Belgium’s Union Saint-Gilloise won 4-0 against Israeli outfit Hapoel Be’er Sheva.
Saint-Gilloise, Sunderland and Juve all have seven points from three games.
Juventus thought they had come from behind to beat French side Rennes but had their late ‘winner’ ruled out for a marginal offside.
Zeki Celik put Juve ahead after five minutes only for a poor clearance 10 minutes later allowing Musa Al-Taamari to poke home an equaliser. Jut before the break Boulaye Dia put the visitors ahead.
Juventus made it 2-2 thanks to a handball and a spot-kick transformed by Nick Woltemade before VAR provided the biggest talking point, disallowing Jhon Lucumi’s 88th minute strike.