Villa edge Basel to join leaders as Roma roll past Celtic and Lyon stay strong
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BASEL, Switzerland, Dec 11 - Aston Villa secured a 2-1 victory at Basel on Thursday, with goals from Evann Guessand and Youri Tielemans keeping their Europa League campaign on a strong footing.
The result lifted Villa to 15 points, level with Olympique Lyonnais and Midtjylland at the top of the group after six matches. Basel remain below the play-off section with six points.
Villa settled quickly and struck first when a loose ball from a corner fell kindly for Guessand, who finished from close range after 12 minutes.
Basel gradually eased themselves into the match and drew level in the 34th minute, with Flavius Daniliuc poking home after a fine free kick swung in by Xherdan Shaqiri.
Only minutes after coming on, Tielemans found the net for Villa with a composed finish in the 53rd minute to put them ahead again, and they kept the Swiss side at bay for the rest of the match to get all three points.
Lyon's momentum continued with a home 2-1 win against Go Ahead Eagles in a match that erupted into life immediately, with three goals inside the opening 11 minutes. Afonso Moreira struck for the hosts after just three minutes, Milan Smit equalised soon after and Pavel Sulc restored Lyon’s lead before many in the crowd had even settled into their seats.
AS Roma saw off Celtic in Glasgow, led by a first-half double by Evan Ferguson and an own goal by Liam Scales before the break, making it 3-0 to the Italians at the end.
In Bergen, SK Brann suffered a nightmare start against Fenerbahce when Kerem Akturkoglu scored after just five minutes, and midfielder Eivind Helland was shown a straight red soon after, leaving the hosts to play with 10 men. Fenerbahce's Talisca took advantage to get a hat-trick that ended the match 4-0 for the Turkish side.
SC Freiburg also had a numerical advantage at home against RB Salzburg, as the Austrian visitors had Petar Ratkov sent off just before the break. Minutes after the restart, Philipp Lienhart broke the deadlock for Freiburg, who secured a 1-0 win. REUTERS
