JOIN USSamuel Eto’o scored twice to give ambitious Anzhi Makhachkala a 2-0 Europa League win over Young Boys on Thursday while Liverpool lost 3-2 at home to Udinese and Videton, Sparta Prague and Molde pulled off surprise wins.
Defending champions Atletico Madrid, one of several teams fielding a second string line-up, needed a goal deep in stoppage time from Cristian Rodriguez to overcome defiant Czechs Viktoria Plzen 1-0.
The Uruguayan player known as ‘The Onion’ let fly from outside the area to leave Diego Simeone’s team with six points from two games at the top of Group ‘B’.
Eto’o, who last week ended his stand-off with Cameroon officials and agreed to play for his country again, converted a 62th minute penalty against the run of play.
He then turned in Oleg Shatov’s cross in the last minute to complete a 2-0 win over the Swiss side and extend Anzhi’s unbeaten run to seven matches in the competition, including the qualifiers.
Videoton gave Hungarian football a rare boost with a 3-0 win over Sporting, the goals coming in the first half from Paulo Vinicius, Filipe Oliveira and Nemanja Nikolic, while Sparta Prague beat last season's runners-up Athletic Bilbao 3-1.
Molde, coached by former Manchester United forward Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, beat Germany’s VfB Stuttgart 2-0 with second-half goals from Jo Inge Berget and Daniel Chima.
Inter Milan enjoyed an easy 3-1 win at Azerbaijan’s Neftci thanks to first-half goals from Philippe Coutinho, Joel Obi and Marko Livaja, all set up by Colombian Fredy Guarin.