Juventus began their quest for Europa League glory with a 5-0 thrashing of NEC Nijmegen, while Bournemouth secured an impressive victory at Real Sociedad on their European debut on Thursday. Crystal Palace were 4-0 winners over Lech Poznan, but Celtic suffered another European embarassment as the Scottish champions were beaten 3-1 at home by Ferencvaros. Juventus expect to be competing among Europe’s elite in the Champions League, but the failure to qualify last season has at least allowed them the chance to end a 30-year wait for a continental trophy.
Zeki Celik and Randal Kolo Muani rounded off the scoring after the break as Juventus made a better start than rivals AC Milan, who lost 2-0 to Benfica in the pick of Wednesday’s Europa League action.
Just weeks on from crashing out of the Champions League qualifiers to Austrian side LASK, despite at one point holding a four-goal lead, Celtic’s defensive flaws were exposed once more. Daniel Arzani’s sensational strike on his return to Celtic Park capped a fine night for Ferencvaros after a Liam Scales own goal and Kristoffer Zachariassen put the visitors in front. Vaclav Cerny, Micahel Amir Murillo and Ernest Poku struck in the second half after Keyliane Abdallah had cancelled out Ilhan Fakili’s opener for the Turkish side.
The Italian giants were far too strong for their Dutch visitors in Turin as Nico Gonzalez, Kerim Alajbegovic and Nick Woltemade, with his first goal since joining on loan from Newcastle, made it 3-0 before half-time.
